The Champion Under the Silver Mountain
by The Additional Pylon
Summary: Becoming the Champion? Easy. Single-handedly destroying an evil terrorist organization? Even easier. Trying to live a normal life after your grand adventure? Yeah... we might need some help with that one. Unfortunately, the only ones left to help are a bunch of other Champions who have all lost their minds already. What could possibly go wrong?
1. The Fandom Menace

**I'm sure many of you have wondered what happened to the player characters after their games ended. Asides from Red, none of them are ever seen or even mentioned in later installments. From what I figured they were either all away training in an alternate dimension or were simply hanging out together in some secret Champions-only country club after failing to adjust to civilian life. I figured the latter was probably more likely and thus this fic was born!**

 **Anyways, this is** **my first long-term story in several years so I would really like to know if there's anything to improve upon during my time writing this. As such, any and all reviews are welcome. Even a simple "Meh" would be appreciated. Well, I would like better feedback than that but it would be pretty funny to see hundreds of reviews saying nothing but "Meh."**

 **Now then, I present to you the untold story of the great 'heroes' of the Pokémon Universe! And who better to begin with than the trainer who started it all: Red!**

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 **Prologue: The Fandom Menace**

Back in his youth, Red had imagined that becoming the Pokémon Champion would be the single greatest thing ever. Deluded by the TV shows of his childhood, Red had believed that being Champion simply meant looking cool and owning a fabulously large mansion. That and holding uncontested bragging rights over his life-long rival, Blue. Two years into his career as the Champion of the Kanto region though, Red found out the hard way that this wasn't the case. Surprisingly, it wasn't the societal pressures, lack of personal free time, insistent news reporters, or even the daily line of trainers wanting to challenge him that bothered him. No, what truly destroyed his childhood image of the job was _this_.

"Can't you people leave me alone?! I just wanted to buy some cookies at the department store!"

High above the coast of Vermillion City, Red screamed this out loud from the back of his Charizard as the two soared through the sky at near-Mach speed. Casting a quick glance backwards, Red saw to his horror that the enormous flock of trainers chasing him had nearly tripled in size since the last time he had checked. Apparently, flying over a major city had been a bad idea as his adversaries had managed to request back-up from below. Red had little time to think about this though as a flurry of Hyper Beams were shot out from the various Flying-type Pokémon that the pursuing trainers were riding on.

"Crap! Charizard, evasive maneuvers now!"

Thankfully, Red's Charizard was more than skilled enough to avoid all of the attacks. Just as Red was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a loud yell was suddenly heard from above him. The young Champion had just enough time to look up and see a large Fearow that had managed to stealthily catch up with Charizard and was now flying a few feet above him. However, the thing that really caught his attention was the young girl that had just jumped off of the aforementioned Fearow and was now falling directly towards Red. Before he could do anything, she crashed on top of Red like a ballistic missile.

The impact caused Charizard to plummet down several feet before he finally managed to steady himself. During this time, both Red and the dive-bombing girl managed to recover and simultaneously turned to face each other. Much to Red's dismay, the girl was wearing an outfit that was clearly supposed to be a replica of his (complete with gloves and hat). Anyone else looking at this bizarre situation would have probably been very confused but Red knew from experience just who exactly this girl, along with all the other trainers following him, were.

Indeed, they were none other than members of his devoted 'fan club' who had been trying to capture him for the last two years.

"Umm… that's a nice costume you have there," Red said in an attempt to distract the fangirl in front of him. Unfortunately, this only made the situation worse as the girl began to squee in delight as she suddenly leapt forward to hug him.

"OH MY GOSH! RED-SENPAI NOTICED ME!"

Red thought his ears were going to bleed from the high-pitched sounds as he did his best to hold off the fangirl's assault.

"Haven't you ever heard of personal space, lady?" Red managed to yell out as he tried to figure out what to do. After seeing just how low they were currently flying, Red came to an abrupt decision. Muttering a silent apology, Red grabbed the girl's flailing arms and used all of his strength to throw her overboard. However, the fangirl had other plans as she reached forward at the last second and managed to grab a fistful of Red's hair. Red gave a pained yell as he suddenly felt a large tuft of his hair being ripped away.

"I GOT HIS HAIR!" the fangirl yelled out in psychotic glee as she fell through the air. This was immediately followed by an enormous splash that would have made Magikarps everywhere proud as the fangirl fell into the ocean.

 _I'm sure she'll be fine_ , Red thought as he tried to ignore the pain on his head and returned his attention to the swarm of fans that were still hot on his tail. As he did, he realized that he should be worrying more about himself at the moment. Apparently the scuffle with the fangirl had allowed the other fans to drastically close the distance between them and their prey. Red could now see that the hundreds of trainers following him were all dressed just like him with some of them even going so far as to dress up their Pokémon in red vests. In the back of his head, Red couldn't help but feel a tiny bit impressed by the fans' dedication. However, this feeling was mostly ignored due to the greater sense of absolute terror that was coursing through Red at the moment. His fear was only increased ten-fold when he heard a loud shout from the crowd behind him.

"First one to bring him down gets his vest!"

This, along with the thunderous roars of approval that followed, nearly made Red wet his pants. As if sensing his trainer's anxiety, Charizard increased his flying speed as he headed up towards a group of clouds in the distance. However, the dragon's plan to lose their pursuers was quickly ruined when a trio of Super Nerds riding on Aerodactyls zoomed ahead of the main flock and caught up to their target.

"Heh heh heh. Looks like the vest belongs to us now!" the lead Super Nerd announced victoriously as he threw the large net he was holding. Seeing this, Red closed his eyes and prepared for the worst. Just when it looked like all hope was lost though, Charizard brought out his full power and blasted forward like a flaming missile. This in turn caused the thrown net to completely miss its intended target and ironically capture one of the other Super Nerds instead.

"You idiot! How could you mi- AHHHHH!" With his Aerodactyl's wings tangled up in the net, the captured Super Nerd and his mount plummeted downwards like a rock. As it so happened, the net had been connected to a rope that was tied to the lead Super Nerd's arm. Realizing too late what was going to happen, the Super Nerd could only make a terrified squeak as he too was dragged down.

Hearing the two loud splashes coming from behind him, Red couldn't help but punch the air triumphantly. "Woohoo! Great job Charizard!"

However, Red soon realized that he was now in even more trouble than before. Judging from the labored breathing, Charizard was reaching his limit after pulling off that miraculous speed boost. Even worse, the last Super Nerd was still right behind them with the main flock of fans not too far behind. Knowing that they would both be goners if Charizard crash-landed into the sea, Red began looking around for any nearby pieces of land where they could possibly hide. Unfortunately, the two had flown pretty far out during the chase and were now miles away from the nearest coastline.

"Hang in there Charizard! A few more miles south and we'll reach Fuchsia Ci-" Red paused as he suddenly felt his instincts warning him of incoming danger. "Charizard, dive!"

The two barely dodged a Hyper Beam sent by the remaining Super Nerd's Aerodactyl as the blast narrowly sailed over their heads. Giving no time for their targets to recover, the prehistoric beast launched another Hyper Beam towards them.

"Hey, no fair!" Red yelled out as Charizard once again dodged the incoming attack. "You can't just use Hyper Beam again like that! You need to recharge after every attack!"

The Super Nerd ignored him as he simply ordered his Aerodactyl to continue firing off its death lasers. Apparently the Super Nerd's burning obsession to capture Red was so powerful that it allowed his Pokémon to ignore even one of the basic laws of the universe. Seeing this only served to reinforce Red's belief that his fans were not human and were actually demons from some twisted alternate dimension.

"There's got to be a way out of this mess," Red muttered as he looked around for anything that could help them. Sadly, nothing could be seen but an endless ocean that seemed to stretch on forever. Red even thought about switching out Charizard for his Blastoise and surfing across the water but soon realized that the airborne fans would catch up and descend upon them in a matter of seconds. Fighting the fans head-on was also out of the question as the sheer number of foes meant that Red and his team would quickly be overwhelmed. With no other option but to hope that Charizard could last for a few more minutes, Red began praying to an imaginary Pokémon god he made up on the spot for help.

As it turned out, Red's god was in a less-than favorable mood that day. As Charizard struggled to stay airborne, a haphazardly shot Hyper Beam made a lucky (or unlucky in Red's case) hit with its intended target. As the explosion blasted Red off of Charizard's back, the young trainer silently vowed to strangle his god if he ever got the chance. As he fell alongside his Charizard towards the cold waters waiting below though, he realized that it probably was not a good idea to piss off an almighty deity when he was most likely going to die soon. After quickly thinking up an apology to his imaginary god, Red began wondering if he would really die from a fall at this height. Whatever the case was, he was pretty sure it would be far better to die from the impact than to let his fans dismember him and sell his parts on their website.

As he continued to hurtle downwards, Red felt his consciousness slowly starting to fade. Perhaps it was from delayed shock or perhaps the pressure of falling down at such high speeds, he really couldn't tell. As his vision began to blur, Red was left with one final chain of thought:

 _Darn it, I never did get to buy those new imported cookies from Celadon. Well… I just hope the afterlife has a decent cookie shop around. Hmm… I wonder what kind of cookies they have in the afterlife…? I hope they have the apple strudel ones with caramel pieces inside… Mmm… Caramel…_

And with that happy thought the world faded to black.

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 **Review? You can have one of Red's imaginary afterlife cookies if you do.**


	2. Otter Nonsense with Old Friends

**And here we are with another batch of madness just as I promised. Before we begin though, a big thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorited the story so far! Your support really helps me come up with these crazy scenarios. Anyways, onward to the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I like the new generation of Pokémon. Red doesn't. You'll understand when you get there.**

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 **Ch 1: Otter Nonsense with Old Friends**

 _Red was in paradise. He was sitting on top of what appeared to be a giant fluffy cloud as he happily munched cookies of all variety that were stacked like mountains around him. Somewhere, the cheerful sounds of the Route 1 theme could be heard playing as if to match the Champion's jubilant mood. After jumping into a nearby cookie pile and coming out with a carefree laugh, Red suddenly spotted something strange. A Pokémon that Red had never seen before was wistfully staring at Red's pile of cookies. Feeling rather generous, Red motioned towards the Pokémon to come join him. Seeing this, the Pokémon perked up and quickly ran towards the cookie pile._

" _Help yourself to anything in the pile," Red said with a smile causing the Pokémon to immediately dive headfirst into the closest stack. Now that he had taken a closer look, Red saw that the Pokémon resembled a blue and yellow shrew with a small flame on its back. Before Red could pull out his Pokédex to see what the creature's name was, another new Pokémon entered his field of vision. This one was a strange, four-legged creature that had a large leaf on its head. As Red tried to figure out what to do with the newcomer, the flaming shrew from before jumped out and began chatting with the new Pokémon before turning to look at the trainer expectantly._

" _Ohhh… I get it. You want me to let your friend join us as well." Red paused for a second to add some dramatic tension before answering with a wide smile. "Sure, why not? The more the merrier I say. Besides, I've got more than enough cookies for the three of us."_

 _This caused the leaf-Pokémon to jump for joy as it jumped into the pile next to its friend. Deciding the two Pokémon would keep each other occupied, Red returned to his glorious cookie feast._

 _After a long while, Red returned to check up on his guests. Much to his surprise he found that the number of Pokémon had increased. Chomping through a nearby mound of cookies was a bizarre blue mudfish creature as well as a small orange chick._

" _Umm… who are these guys?" Hearing Red ask this, the shrew and leaf creature from before simply shrugged as if this didn't concern them._

" _Well… I guess two more wouldn't make too much of a diff-" Red didn't get to finish as his favorite Route 1 theme suddenly changed into an unfamiliar tune featuring a lot of trumpets. Seeing the way that the mudfish thing and the chick were bobbing their heads to the new music, he guessed that they had been the ones to somehow change the soundtrack._

" _Okay, not cool. I'm the boss here and I didn't give you permission to change the song." This was promptly ignored as the fire shrew and leaf creature began dancing to the tune as well. "Seriously guys, this is getting out of hand…"_

 _Red trailed off when he spotted yet another intruder in his personal paradise. This time he wasn't even sure if what he was seeing were actually Pokémon. A proud-looking blue penguin along with a turtle that had a small plant sticking out of its head were munching away on his cookies without a care in the world. To Red, these new creatures looked like something he and Blue had doodled on their sketchbooks as kids when they didn't know what actual Pokémon looked like. Whatever the case was, Red was starting to get ticked off about the uninvited guests._

" _Hey! I never said it was alright for you guys to be here! Just who do you think is in charge of this place?"_

 _This seemed to be the wrong thing to say as all the Pokémon suddenly turned on him with an annoyed look on their faces. Even though he was a bit intimidated by this, Red maintained his stern look as he continued speaking. "Alright, listen up! If you guys are going to stay then let's get one thing straight! This place belongs to me and only me! You guys are all here because I let you! So unless you want to get kicked out, you'll start listening to what I have to say!"_

 _Upon hearing this, the Pokémon slowly got up and began to menacingly approach the young Champion. As they did, numerous other Pokémon that Red didn't know about suddenly popped out from the piles of cookie surrounding him. Normally, this would have scared the heck out of Red but at the moment he couldn't help but suddenly burst out laughing as he spotted something among the crowd. The Pokémon all stopped with a confused look in their eyes as the Champion continued to laugh like a maniac. After a long while, he managed to lift up his hand and pointed towards a pair of Pokémon that had just appeared._

" _Y… you're kidding, right?" Red said while trying to hold back his laughter. "A_ _ **fire**_ _pig? That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've seen in my entire life! I mean, what's it going to do? Cook itself for my breakfast? And don't even get me started on that dumb otter thing! It just… it looks…" Red couldn't finish his sentence as he burst out laughing again._

 _Unfortunately for Red, the "dumb otter" did not take too kindly to being mocked. With a clearly enraged expression, the otter suddenly began to glow with a white light. Instead of evolving however, it simply grew to about ten times its original size. By this point, Red was no longer laughing as he stared up at the colossal otter in pure terror._

" _Err… I was just joking about you being dumb…" The otter ignored Red's lame attempt at an apology as it reached down and somehow grabbed the terrified trainer with its stubby arm. With a furious look still on its face, the giant otter began making its way towards the edge of Red's cookie cloud island with its victim in tow. Upon reaching the edge, the otter looked down at Red with a menacing grin before slowly raised the arm holding the trainer. Realizing what was going to happen, Red began to struggle and plead for his life._

" _I take it back! You're not stupid! You're the most majestic Pokémon I've ever seen! Just let me go! I… I'll even give you half of my cookies!" As he said that, Red caught sight of something that made him forget all about his current plight. The mountains of cookies that had decorated the place a few seconds ago were all gone as the other Pokémon were lying on the ground with overstuffed bellies. Not even a crumb was left behind as Red looked on in disbelief. As if to add insult to injury, the fire pig gave a loud fiery burp that somehow lighted up the cloud causing Red's former paradise to suddenly turn into a hellish landscape. As Red looked on in horror, the giant otter holding him caught on fire as well. Everything except for the arm holding Red was completely enveloped in a fiery veil giving the otter an even more nightmarish appearance. As Red finally began to openly scream in terror, the otter let out a deep, booming laugh that resounded with pure malice. As the demonic laughter continued to echo through Red's ears, the giant otter threw the screaming Champion off of the cloud and into the dark abyss. The last thing Red saw before being consumed by the darkness was the laughing form of the hellish otter as his once-glorious cookie paradise burned behind it._

 **xxx**

"AHHH! DEMON OTTERS!" Red's screams about nightmarish, semi-aquatic mammals were interrupted when he suddenly felt himself falling before landing face-first onto a carpeted floor. "Owww…"

After taking a few seconds to recover, Red slowly got up and found himself in a tidy little living room. Apparently, he had been sleeping on the sofa next to him before he had so graciously fallen off just now. As Red tried to sort all of this inside his still-throbbing head, a bemused voice was suddenly heard from behind him.

"Demon otters? Hmm… maybe I should have given you that shot of antipsychotics after all…"

Recognizing the voice, Red quickly turned around and gave a sigh of relief when he found a familiar face. Wearing a fashionable lab coat as well as a pair of dark shades, the bald man was none other than Blaine, the ex-gym leader of Cinnabar Island as well as one of Red's few trusted friends. At the moment, Blaine was casually sitting in the recliner next to the sofa and was sipping a cup of tea. From the look he was giving Red, he was still expecting an explanation about the Champion's latest remark.

"Err… you can forget about the otter thing. It was just a nightmare I had..." Judging from the small yet distinct smile on Blaine's face, Red guessed that his friend was already compiling an extensive list of otter-related jokes to taunt him with. Deciding he had enough otters in his life for one day, Red quickly changed the subject. "So… I'm guessing you're the one who saved me from my fans?"

"More or less," Blaine remarked with a shrug. If he was disappointed that he didn't get to use his jokes, he clearly didn't show it.

Red gave a nod to Blaine's answer before bringing up another important question. "How long was I out for?"

Blaine stayed silent as if he had to think for a second. After taking a sip of his tea, he finally answered in a calm voice. "One year and eight months, if I recall correctly."

Red visibly blanched when he heard this. Just as he was about start running around the room looking for a calendar, he realized something didn't quite add up.

"Wait a second... I was sleeping on the sofa. No one would keep a comatose person on the sofa for nearly two years!"

Hearing this, Blaine finally started to laugh. Realizing that he had just been duped, Red crossed his arms and simply glared at the old man.

"Ha ha. Really mature of you," Red sarcastically intoned as his friend continued to laugh.

It took a good three minutes for the old Gym Leader to calm down. After drowning out the last few bits of laughter with a sip of his tea, Blaine faced Red with a smirk still on his face.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. You were actually just out for about an hour or so."

"And here I was thinking that you might have improved your sense of humor since I last saw you." Red gave a heavy sigh as he sat back down on the sofa. "Ah, well. I guess you did just save me from being butchered by a horde of fans. I suppose I owe you one even if it means putting up with your 'jokes.'"

Blaine actually turned somewhat serious as he dismissed Red's words with a wave of his hand. "You don't owe me anything. I'm merely repaying you back for the time you helped with Cinnabar's evacuation."

Hearing this, Red couldn't help but smile a bit as he remembered that fateful day. Several months before the latest fan club attack, Red had played a crucial role in the evacuation of Cinnabar Island when its volcano had suddenly erupted. With the help of his various Pokémon, Red had managed to scout, rescue, and ferry the island's inhabitants away from the burning town before it was too late. After the dust had settled, the media had made the surprising report that there had been no casualties despite the magnitude of the disaster. Of course, Blaine and the town's residents knew exactly who to thank for this but kept their savior's identity a secret to prevent the infamous fan club from tracking him down. Following this, Red had come back to check up on the refugees every once in a while and had struck up a friendship with Blaine during that time. Of course, the Champion soon had to go back into hiding as fan club activity began to rise again.

"Speaking of the eruption, since when did you get a nice little vacation home like this?" Red asked as he finally took in his surroundings. "Last I heard, you were camping out somewhere in the Seafoam Islands."

Blaine gave an amused smile before answering.

"Who said I wasn't?"

Blaine then pulled out what looked like a tiny TV remote from his coat pocket. With the press of a button, a small section of the wall above the sofa suddenly slid open. As Red got up and peered through the newly exposed window, he saw that the room was actually built inside a cave overlooking the ocean. Judging from what Blaine had just said, it was quite clear that the entire place was built directly into one of the Seafoam Islands.

"Wha…? When did you…? How did you…?"

Blaine couldn't help but give a laugh after seeing the incredulous look on Red's face. "No need to be so surprised. Anyone with the right contacts can get themselves a secret, ocean-side villa built nowadays. Unfortunately, I might have gone a little overboard with this little project."

"What do you mean?"

"I spent all my money on this place so now I have nothing left to rebuild my gym," Blaine said as he scratched his head in embarrassment. "Luckily, the Pokémon Association is still stuck on the official paperwork regarding the destruction of Cinnabar so I have a bit of time before announcing my return. Just as a precaution though, I've constructed a temporary gym on the other island."

"Cool. What does your new gym look like?"

"Well… it's not really so much a gym as it is an empty cave with a battle arena drawn on the floor in white paint… Anyways, if anyone asks, tell them I'm still homeless. I'm planning on enjoying a quiet life here after I retire so be sure to keep this place a secret from everyone else."

Red simply nodded as he turned around to inspect the place more thoroughly. The living room was modest in size but very cozy-looking with its sofa, recliner, coffee table, bookshelf and large, wall-mounted TV. Next to it was an expensive-looking dining room with a hand-crafted wooden table and crystal chandelier as well as a kitchen that was filled to the brim with the latest cutting-edge appliances. From his position, Red spotted three separate rooms that were connected to the living room. The one on the far right was clearly a bathroom while the other two were currently closed at the moment. Red guessed that these two rooms were Blaine's room and lab respectively.

Finishing his look around, Red gave an impressed whistle. "This is one heck of a place you have old man."

"Oh, this is nothing. You should see the water-ski course I have downstairs."

"You have an underground water-ski course?!"

"Of course. It's right next to my starship fleet and otter zoo."

Red could have reacted to this terrible joke in a variety of different ways but eventually chose to just go with an old classic: the face-palm. Of course, Blaine didn't even notice as he was too busy laughing.

Several minutes and multiple sighs later, the two were back to making small talk as they ate the bowl of chips that Blaine had brought out from the kitchen. As they continued ranting to each other about the rising prices of Repels, Red suddenly remembered something that he had forgotten to ask.

"By the way, how exactly did you rescue me from all those fans?"

Before Blaine could answer, one of the closed doors suddenly opened and a familiar yet terrifying figure entered the living room.

 _He didn't,_ the legendary Pokémon known as Mewtwo said telepathically as he glared at Red. _I'm the one who had to actually go and teleport your sorry ass over here. The only thing that old geezer did was to tell me to rescue you after seeing your stupid chase on the news._

Red was speechless as he tried to take all of this in. In hindsight though, Red really shouldn't have been surprised by Mewtwo's presence. He had actually entrusted Blaine with the Psychic Pokémon during their last meeting several months back. Even after capturing Mewtwo with the Master Ball, Red had been too afraid to use the violent Pokémon as he would always turn on Red the moment he let him out. As such, Red had hoped that Blaine would be able to use some of his scientific tools and knowledge to help adjust the Pokémon's foul temper. Judging from what he just heard though, Red guessed that progress was still slow.

"I didn't know you could talk," Red eventually managed to say as he took a closer look at his former Pokémon. The only change that Red saw was the large mug of coffee that Mewtwo was telekinetically holding up. As Red waited for an answer, the Pokémon downed the last bit of brew in the cup before facing the young Champion with a scowl.

 _I think I should be more surprised that a primitive monkey like you can talk._

Red wisely chose not to make a witty comeback as Mewtwo went over to the coffee machine in the kitchen to refill his mug.

"I'd cut back on the caffeine if I were you," Blaine advised without even turning his head. "I don't want you going another genocidal rampage from sleep deprivation."

Mewtwo simply gave an annoyed grunt as he walked back to his room with his coffee in hand.

"Well… You two sure seem to get along," Red remarked sarcastically as the door to Mewtwo's room closed.

"Yeah, our therapy sessions haven't been going very well." Blaine gave a sigh as he folded his arms. "I mean, he's definitely improved from his 'destroy all human' days but now he's turned into a caffeine-addicted internet troll."

"…a what?"

Blaine gave another sigh before explaining. "He spends most of his time on the computer posting angry and disruptive comments wherever he can. Apparently his actions have become so infamous that the online community coined the term 'troll' to describe him. Honestly though, I'm not much of an internet person so it doesn't make much sense to me either."

Red nodded in agreement to the last part of that statement. As he had been on the run for nearly two years, Red was not exactly the most tech-savvy person on the planet. However, he did know that the internet was an old invention of Bill's that had grown in popularity in the last several years.

Red's thoughts were interrupted when Blaine's clock suddenly began to chime.

"Oh wow, it's seven o'clock already?" Red exclaimed as he got up. "Well, guess I better head out then. Thanks again for saving me Blaine. And be sure to thank Mewtwo as well when you get the chance."

"I think you should stay here for a few days," Blaine casually replied without getting up.

"Thanks for the offer but it's alright. I don't want to bother you any more than I already have. Besides, I've got a nice landfill near Fuchsia City that I can lay low in for a while."

Deciding to overlook Red's bizarre choice of a hideout, Blaine instead grabbed the TV remote on the coffee table and flipped over to the news.

"… _the greatest Champion ever! He even cares so much for us fans that he actually took the time to have a mock air battle with us today!"_ From the look of things, the media was covering the story about the Champion's appearance earlier that day. Disturbingly enough, the person who was being interviewed was a half-naked man that had painted himself to look like a Pikachu. However, he was hardly the strangest one in the shot as the enormous crowds of people behind him were all dressed as either Red or his various Pokémon. As the clearly freaked out reporter tried to give a smile and walk away, a disheveled young girl dressed as the Champion suddenly burst forward with what appeared to be a fistful of hair.

" _RED-SENPAI ACTUALLY GRABBED MY ARMS AND THEN GAVE ME SOME OF HIS HAIR!"_ The subsequent squees from the fangirl were so high-pitched that it actually managed to put a crack on the camera's lens. However, this was only the start of the chaos as nearby fans suddenly plowed through the terrified reporter and cameraman in their scramble to steal some of Red's hair from the ecstatic fangirl. The last thing to be heard before the live feed was cut off was what sounded like several limbs being torn apart along with the muffled voice of the fangirl shouting, "MARRY ME SENPAI!"

An awkward silence fell upon the living room as the news returned to an equally quiet studio. Red was in complete frozen status with a look somewhere between disbelief and outright fear etched onto his face. After a good five minutes, Red finally thawed out and spoke up.

"Forget the landfill. I'm staying here for the night."

Blaine could barely contain his laughter as he got up to refill his cup of tea.

"You can sleep on the sofa."

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 **Leave a review and I'll give you an imaginary otter farm. Just make sure to never call them dumb.**


	3. Cooking Up a Plan

**Fun fact: These first three chapters, including the prologue, weren't actually in my original draft. The story was supposed to start with Red inviting a certain Gen II protagonist to his secret resort on Mt. Silver but I felt there would be too many unanswered questions with that setup. So instead of just writing a boring exposition dump, I figured I should take some creative liberties regarding Red's actions during the three year time skip between games. Along the way, I figured I'd also explain why Red was at Mt. Silver in the first place, why he cut off all contact with the outside world, and also the big mystery as to why he didn't have Mewtwo with him during the famous mountaintop battle.**

 **Anyways, I feel like I could have done a much better job regarding these three chapters, especially this one. However, I did promise to update at least once a week so I didn't want to go about rewriting this for another week or two. I'll probably come back to rewrite all of these when I get the chance so any constructive criticisms before then would be greatly appreciated.**

 **Oh and before I forget, thank you once again for the reviews and favorites. I know it gets annoying seeing these before every chapter so I'll only put these up every three or so chapters from now on. However, just know that every chapter is made possible by your support. You guys are the best!**

* * *

 **Ch 2: Cooking Up a Plan**

"You know Pikachu, life just doesn't get much better than this," Red declared as he lay on the sofa with a martini glass filled with soda in his hand. A strange anime about card games was playing on the large TV in front of him while Pikachu was currently sitting on the coffee table while munching on a large bowl of cheese puffs.

"Pika Pi…" Pikachu dryly commented before burying his head inside the cheese puff bowl once again.

"Yeah, I guess it would be better if there was something better to watch." As Red said this with a sigh, the spiky-haired protagonist on-screen began his tenth consecutive monologue about something called 'the heart of the cards.' "You know, I really miss the old classics like _Dragonite Ball Z, Tauros Bebop_ , and _Mobile Suit Magneton_. Those were the good days. Oh, and regardless of what Blue says, _Sailor Clefairy_ was an awesome show as well!"

Pikachu rolled his eyes as Red began his daily speech on why _Sailor Clefairy_ was not just for little girls. Deciding that the exposition about Egyptian voodoo magic on TV was a tiny bit more interesting than Red's rant, Pikachu grabbed the remote next to his cheese puff bowl and upped the volume.

It had been two and a half weeks since Red had taken refuge in Blaine's secret vacation home. During that time, Red had finally been able to unwind and relax for the first time in nearly two years. Due to the distance separating the Seafoam Islands from the mainland, visitors were far and between which gave Red some much needed peace of mind. Food was also no longer an issue as Blaine made sure that the house's fridge and cupboard were always full with constant trips to Fuchsia City's market. Much to the Gym Leader's amusement, Red had nearly cried tears of joy when he found out he no longer had to scavenge for food at shady liquor stores and isolated dumpsters to survive. Even the fact that he had to sleep on the sofa was not an issue for Red as he much preferred the comfy cushions to the rabid Raticates of his landfill hideouts. In short, Red had finally managed to find his long-sought-after sanctuary that was beyond the reaches of his demented fan club.

"…thus further proving the fact that Sailor Clefairy was meant to be a hero for all," Red finished after twenty agonizing minutes. During this time, the card game protagonist on the TV had managed to play one card before going through two existential monologues, nine irrelevant backstories, five different variations of the exact same friendship speech, and finally a detailed history of Egypt's card game rituals. By this point, Pikachu was _almost_ regretting his decision to pay attention to the show instead of Red.

 _Oi! Keep it down you idiots!_ Mewtwo suddenly shouted out telepathically from inside his room. _Some of us have actual work to do!_

"Oh I'm sorry," Red shot back. "Did I just interrupt your oh-so-important work of insulting a bunch of ten year-olds for posting their opinions online? What will we ever do without your colorful profanities on the internet?"

… _I'll give you five seconds to reconsider your position before I literally melt your brain inside your skull._

"I'll shut up now," Red immediately answered as he grabbed the TV remote to lower the volume as well. Pikachu didn't pay much attention to any of this and simply went back to munching on his cheese puffs.

After several relatively quiet minutes, the card game anime finally ended prompting Red to stretch as he put down his now-empty martini glass on the table. As if on cue, the sound of a motorboat was heard approaching the island.

"About time Blaine got back from his Gym Leader meeting. I thought I would have to cook dinner tonight." Pikachu immediately shot up with a shocked expression upon hearing Red's words. Seeing this, Red folded his arms as he sent a glare at his unsupportive partner. "Oh come on. You can't seriously be holding that against me still. We'd been on the run for three days straight and we had to eat something."

Pikachu visibly turned green as he remembered the impromptu 'meal' that Red had cooked up in the past. Thinking back on it, even Red couldn't help but feel a little queasy as he recalled that terrible day.

"Alright, fine. I suppose that my Weepinbell salad wasn't the greatest idea considering it was a Poison-type but you have to admit that my Caterpie stew wasn't terrible…ish."

Pikachu didn't answer as he felt all of the cheese puffs he ate trying to get back out. As Pikachu sprinted over to the bathroom, Blaine entered through main door that was disguised as a plain rock wall on the outside.

"Ugh. You would not believe the amount of information the Pokémon Association dumped on us to-" Blaine cut himself off when heard the sounds that Pikachu was making from the bathroom. Taking a quick glance at Red and seeing his sheepish expression, Blaine just slowly shook his head as he headed towards his room. "I'm not even going to ask…"

 **xxx**

Thankfully for everyone, Blaine cooked dinner that night as usual. Red, Pikachu, and Blaine were eating at the dining table while Mewtwo had wordlessly taken his plate into his room like he always did. The rest of Red's Pokémon were on the neighboring island as they feasted on the gourmet Pokémon food that Blaine had bought for them. Seeing as how most of them were too large to fit in the house, Blaine had let them camp out in his currently-unused gym for the duration of Red's stay. The exception to this was Pikachu who had spent one too many nights outdoors and preferred to stay inside with all the comforts of a modern day house.

After few minutes of silent eating, Red suddenly spoke up.

"By the way, has anyone ever questioned the fact that we actually eat Pokémon?"

Red held up the large drumstick of the roast Farfetch'd that they had been eating to emphasize his point. Blaine simply let out a sigh and helped himself to some of the barbequed leek before answering.

"Is there a specific reason as to why you're bringing up that topic right now?"

"Well, it's just that… isn't it considered cannibalism if a Pokémon eats another Pokémon?"

Pikachu immediately froze with his handful of Farfetch'd meat halfway to his mouth.

"It's not cannibalism if they're not of the same species," Blaine quickly explained after noticing Pikachu's reaction. "Seriously Red, even my jokes aren't that terrible."

Red was too busy laughing at Pikachu's priceless expression to even bother hearing the last part. The electric rodent on the other hand was feeling pretty fed up with Red's antics for the day and decided to dish out some well-deserved justice to the still-laughing trainer.

"Ha ha! I really should have taken a photo of your face Pika… What are doing with that knife? And what's that wishbone for?"

Pikachu simply chose to leap towards his trainer with bloodlust in his eyes as a response. As vengeful justice was being served and Red's screams began to echo throughout the room, Blaine casually finished his dinner before heading over to the sink to wash the dishes.

"I need better friends," Blaine muttered as Red's tattered hat went flying into the air behind him.

 **xxx**

An hour and a half later, Red and Pikachu were sitting on the sofa while Blaine was at his usual recliner. Red was currently covered from head to toe in bandages giving the impression that a cheap mummy replica was on display. Much to Blaine's relief, Pikachu had managed to tone down his torture so that minimal amounts of blood had been spilt. After all, it would have been a pain trying to get bloodstains off of the carpet.

"So… I got good news and bad news," Blaine eventually announced to the mummified trainer and his Pokémon. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"I'll take the good news. I could use a bit of good in my life right now," Red painfully said.

Pikachu seemed to disagree though as he shook his head before giving Blaine a commanding look.

"Bad news it is then," Blaine obeyed as Red gave a disappointed groan.

"Well, I'm sure I told you this several times after you got here but the Pokémon Association has been having a hard time getting through the paperwork regarding Cinnabar's destruction." Pikachu nodded while Red wiggled his only responsive toe to affirm. "Turns out they finally managed to finish their work today. They told me at the meeting that they want my new gym to be open in three weeks' time."

"Nice! Now you can get back to battling trainers instead of being bored all afternoon," Red congratulated.

Blaine shook his head at this. "Unfortunately, this means that you need to move out before that deadline."

"What?!" Red exclaimed in surprise. "But… but… I like this place! No one tries to kill me here! Well… asides from a certain pair of certified psychopaths in the house." Mewtwo suddenly sent a telepathic vision of him flipping Red off while Pikachu's cheeks began sparking. Seeing this, Red quickly rephrased his sentence. "Er… what I actually meant was that it was nice not having the fan club attacking me. Seriously though, can't I just quietly hide out in here for a couple more months until fan club activity drops? I can just return all of my Pokémon hanging out in your gym back into their Pokéballs."

"Sorry but sticking around here is probably a bad idea." When Red gave him a questioning glance, Blaine elaborated. "One of the job requirements is that I need to make a public announcement whenever I relocate my gym. Seeing as how there hasn't been anything really newsworthy lately, these islands will be guaranteed to be flooded with reporters. Knowing just how… dynamic that you tend to be with Mewtwo and Pikachu, it would be quite easy for a wandering reporter to hear the ruckus and guess what's going on. If it comes to that, there's no doubt that your fan club will immediately try to kidnap you and most likely end up destroying my poor house in the process."

"Believe me, they'd sink the entire island if it meant capturing me." Red couldn't help but shudder underneath his bandages as he remembered his various close calls.

After a few seconds of silence, Red finally asked the question that Blaine had been expecting.

"So where am I supposed to go then? According to the news, there's been an increase in fan club members which means all of my hideouts are even riskier to use."

"Why not just go back home? I'm sure it would be one of the last places they'd look at this point," Blaine suggested.

"They have guards around my house 24/7," Red replied immediately as he recalled the close call he had experienced. "Trust me, I checked. Besides, I much prefer Pallet Town _not_ being turned into a smoking crater with the words 'We love Red!' spelled out using the remaining rubble."

Blaine winced as he remembered the poor, unnamed village that had suffered this horrific fate a year or so back. If he recalled correctly, that destruction had been caused by a simple rumor that Red had been in the area. It was hard to imagine the Armageddon that would occur if Red had really been found hiding inside a small town that didn't have a large police force.

"Well, I guess this is where my good news comes into play," Blaine said after the uncomfortable silence. "I might have a way to get you away from the fan club for good. The only question is whether you have the money for it."

"Money's not an issue for me," Red answered with a confused look that was mostly hidden by his bandages. "I didn't really make any large purchases in case it was tracked back to me so most of my winnings as Champion are relatively intact. Why are you asking though? Cause if you're trying to hire a private military company to take down the fan club, it's pointless. I've contacted every single one and they all refused saying they don't take suicide missions."

"Even the one with the katana-wielding cyborg?" Blaine asked in spite of himself.

Red nodded. "Even that one."

Blaine couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. "Looks like I've been severely underestimating your fan club."

"You have no idea."

Seeing Red's crestfallen face, Blaine couldn't help but give the young trainer a reassuring pat on the shoulder (which was a lot more painful than reassuring due to Red's recent wounds). "Don't despair yet. My plan wasn't to eliminate the fan club but to hide you from their eyes until their obsession dies down."

Red's eyes lit up. "And how are we going to do that?"

"By setting up your own secret base." Saying this, Blaine walked over to his room before bringing back a small stack of papers. "I've called the people who built this place for me and they've agreed to do the same for you. If you've got the money, then the only thing left to do is figure out where to build your safe house and sign these building contracts."

Both Red and Pikachu seemed very much for this plan as they practically leaped towards the forms that Blaine had set down at the table. Unfortunately for Red, his body was still mostly paralyzed from Pikachu's torture session and he merely ended up flopping around on the sofa like a giant mummified Magikarp.

"Er… you can get to the form signing at a later date," Blaine said after Red nearly toppled onto the floor. "For now, why don't we try to figure out where to put your secret base at?"

Red just gave a small nod in agreement while Pikachu gave an amused grin at his trainer's suffering.

"Now then, are there any good locations that you have in mind already?"

Red thought about Blaine's question for a few moments before answering.

"Well… I would like the base to be somewhere close to home so I can easily go back once the fans decide to torment someone else. Actually, now that I think about it, there is a nice landfi-"

Pikachu immediately smacked Red's still-aching arm to shut him up. It was quite apparent that Pikachu had reached his limit of camping out at landfills and would not tolerate Red setting up their one safe haven anywhere near one.

While Red was screaming in pain at his newly reopened wound, Blaine gave some thought to what the Champion had said.

"Someplace close to Pallet Town… Hmm… I think I might have the perfect place for you."

After spending several minutes recovering from the pain and then getting into a pointless argument with Pikachu, Red finally decided to ask what Blaine was talking about. In response, Blaine asked a question of his own.

"Red, do you know about a place called Johto?"

"Johto…? Wait a second, are you talking about that lame country region that doesn't even have its own Elite Four?"

"That's a rather rude way of putting it but… yes. That Johto."

Red raised an eyebrow as he realized what Blaine was driving at. "You're joking, right? I'm not going to go live out in the boonies just because of my fan club! I'd rather stay a fugitive here than be forced to wear a dress and worship spirits at a shrine!"

Blaine couldn't help but facepalm before answering. "One, not everyone in Johto is a spirit worshiping monk. They might be a bit more… old-fashioned in their customs but they're still a modern-day society just like us. Two, it's not a dress but a traditional garb known as a kimono. It's common knowledge that people in Kanto wear it to festivals as well so I don't understand why you didn't know that already."

"I left on my journey when I was ten," Red pointed out. "There are a lot of things I don't know. And besides, the only festival we had in Pallet Town was the annual hot pot celebration. In hindsight, I really don't know why we kept holding those cause they always ended with the entire town getting food poisoning thanks to Daisy's 'ingredients.' Seriously, who puts chopped Ekans liver and Koffing extract into a hot pot?"

The exasperated Gym Leader could have continued on with this conversation but he was starting to feel rather tired. Knowing it would be far more constructive to just skip ahead to what he had actually been meaning to say, Blaine chose to simply explain his original plan.

"Alright, look. What I was trying to say was that I know of a rather isolated area that's just a few miles west of the Indigo Plateau. It's a place called Mt. Silver and it's officially closed off to the general public due to the relatively strong Pokémon there. With your rank as Champion though, you can easily get yourself and the construction workers through security. As an added safety measure, you could build your secret hideout underneath that mountain so that even the most determined fans can't find it. Given your situation, I would say it's the safest and most practical area for you to settle down in."

Red silently processed Blaine's words and took his time to consider it. While he still had qualms about moving out of Kanto (even if it was just a few miles past the border), Red could tell that this Mt. Silver place really did cater to all of his needs. After a few more minutes, Red seemed to make up his mind and turned his head to face Blaine and Pikachu who were waiting for his answer.

"Alright. It seems like the perfect-"

"Excellent!" Blaine cut in after breathing a sigh of relief. "I'll contact the workers first thing tomorrow. You can finalize the layout of your house with them once they're done inspecting the area."

"Sounds great. But I still have a question though."

"And what's that?"

"Do I need to wear a kimono once I enter Johto?"

Blaine just buried his head into both of his hands while Pikachu decided it was time to give his hopeless trainer some electric shock therapy.

 **xxx**

Several hundred miles away in a quaint little town, a young boy wearing a gold and black hat sat in his room watching TV. As the documentary program went on to show Red standing before an enormous crowd of people who were all clamoring for him, the boy suddenly got a determined look in his eyes.

 _One more year and that'll be me,_ the kid thought to himself. _After I get my Pokémon, I'll become even cooler than that guy! I'll be the most awesome Pokémon Champion who ever lived and everyone will want to be my fan!_

Unfortunately for the kid, his attention was glued solely to the crowds of adoring fans and didn't happen to notice the look of sheer terror that had been on Red's face. Neither did he notice the subsequent clips showing Red being mauled by fangirls due to the fact that he was too busy imagining what his own glory days would look like. By the time the documentary had ended, the only thing left in the boy's one-track mind was a burning passion to become the most famous Pokémon Champion ever. And as Red and several others would eventually find out to their great dismay, absolutely nothing would stop him from accomplishing this dream. Even if that meant destroying all of reality in the process.

But that, of course, is a story for another time…


	4. The Start of a Golden Era

**I was going to put this out three days ago but I ended up splitting the original draft in two after seeing just how long it was. Unfortunately, that meant I needed to patch up this first half to make sure it could stand alone by itself and that took quite a bit longer than expected. On the bright side, I managed to add in a few extra scenes into what would have originally just been bits of exposition. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Note: I'll be using the default names for the player characters that they have on Bulbapedia. Also, I'm gonna be basing Mt. Silver's layout and Red's team off of the original Silver and Gold versions instead of the remakes. I'll be following the manga's set-up and treat the remakes as their own separate arcs so that we can get all of the player characters into the party.**

* * *

 **Ch 3: The Start of a Golden Era**

Red knew that this trainer would be trouble. He didn't have anything to base this feeling on but the moment his base's proximity alarm went up, he just instinctively knew that this intruder was nothing but bad news. And considering how many times his instincts had saved him from being torn to shreds or eaten alive, Red should have listened to it and stayed hidden. Unfortunately, the year or so of absolute peace that he spent in his new underground hideout had dulled his senses and he had rashly headed out to check on this intruder.

After taking one of his base's hidden lifts to the base of the mountain, Red sneaked around the outlying forest until he managed to catch sight of his intended target. With just a brief glance, Red could immediately tell that this was no ordinary intruder. The way he was purposefully walking across the grassy path indicated that he was not someone who had simply lost their way. And considering he was not actively scouting the area, it was very unlikely that he was a fan club member who had snuck in either. The only plausible case then was that this mystery person was a certified trainer who had authorization to enter this place. And from what Red knew, there were only a handful of people that had access to Mt. Silver.

 _Maybe he's a Gym Leader from Johto_ , Red thought as he took a closer look at the unfamiliar trainer. Judging from his age though, this did not seem to be the case. The boy looked about a year or two younger than Red but that could have easily just been due to his short stature. His clothes did not exactly scream Gym Leader either as he was wearing a worn-out red jacket and black shorts that indicated frequent traveling. However, all of this information was quickly forgotten as Red looked at the boy's black and gold baseball cap.

 _Wow, what a lame hat._ Being something of a minor hat enthusiast, Red could not help but be overly critical when it came to judging other people's headwear. And as it was, the boy's hat just happened to irk Red in more ways than one. _That has got to be made out of something cheap like synthetic wool. And just look at that poorly designed brim! That thing's not going to block out any amount of sunlight! Probably the reason why that kid is wearing his cap backwards but then again, he just might be trying to look cool. Ugh, I hate it when people wear their hats incorrectly like that. Just the sight of it sickens me._

Thankfully, Red managed to stop himself from lunging at the boy for his crimes against hat-kind. Tearing his eyes away from the offending headpiece, Red decided that there was no need to directly confront the boy as it looked like the intruder had no business with him. Silently relieved that nothing serious had developed over this, Red was just turning around to leave when the boy suddenly whipped around and shouted.

"Can you come out already? I can clearly see you hiding back there!"

Red was at a complete loss. How had the kid noticed him? He had been absolutely sure that he had not made a single noise the entire time he was watching from behind the large tree!

As the seconds continued to tick by, Red began to mentally go through a list of possible explanations as to how he had been discovered. Just as he was going through the theory that the boy was actually a mind-reading wizard from a faraway land, a large shape suddenly came out of the patch of tall grass several yards away.

While Red was relieved that the boy had actually been talking to someone else, the Champion soon found himself with another question: Since when did giant sentient backpacks exist?

As Red watched, a brown backpack the size of a small car lumbered out of the grass and began to slowly move its way towards the boy. After a good three minutes, it stopped next to the irritated trainer.

"About time," the boy said as he crossed his arms. "Seriously, are you trying to defy the laws of nature by evolving into a Slowpoke? And here I was thinking that the battle with Blue might have toughened you up."

The mention of his former rival did not go unnoticed by the hidden Champion. However, Red was too busy dealing with a much more important piece of information to pay it much mind.

 _Johto has a backpack Pokémon?_ Red had only memorized a few of the newly uncovered Johto Pokémon during his free time so he was unsure as to whether the strange moving backpack was actually one of them. Not sure what to think, Red looked at the boy and his partner once more just to make sure. And as strange as it was, the boy was clearly talking about battle training with the enormous backpack. Seeing this, Red barely managed to stifle a laugh. _I knew Johto had some weird Pokémon but they seriously have a living backpack? What's next? Sentient ice-cream cones?_

As Red began to mentally laugh at the thought of living ice-cream cones, the intruding boy suddenly gave a dramatic sigh before plopping down onto the ground.

"Alright, I guess we can take a short break. Put the backpack down for now and get some food out."

The moment he said this, the backpack seemed to collapse completely down onto the ground before it suddenly began to wiggle around. Several seconds later, a very flattened and exhausted Typhlosion crawled out from underneath. Red couldn't help but let out a small "Eh?" as he realized that the Typhlosion had been the one carrying the backpack the whole time. Thankfully, the boy and his Pokémon did not seem to hear this as they proceeded to kick back and relax while eating the snacks they had dug out of their gargantuan backpack.

"I still can't figure out what makes this place so special," the kid said as he practically inhaled his rice ball in one go. "With all that security at the checkpoint, I figured we'd find a bunch of elite trainers to battle here or maybe even a legendary Pokémon."

The Typhlosion, on the other hand, seemed relieved nothing had popped out so far as he stretched his aching back before slowly digging into his own food. His trainer did not seem to pay this any mind though as he continued speaking.

"Well… maybe we'll find something inside the mountain. Like a sacred sword that only the most amazing Pokémon trainer can wield or something." The boy's eyes suddenly began to gleam at this thought. "I can already imagine it now: With its holy power in my hands, I'll be the first person to unite all of the regions into a single glorious empire under my control! People from all corners of the world will gather to catch even a glimpse of my majestic and divine form! My name will echo across the stars themselves as-"

Deciding he had heard enough, Red silently walked away as the kid continued to rant about his delusions. It was fairly obvious to the Champion that the smart move would be to simply leave this intruder alone. The boy was clearly the impatient type and it was very unlikely that he would stay after finding nothing of interest.

Lost in his thoughts, Red did not see the dry twigs on the ground until he stepped on them with an audible _snap!_ This immediately drew the attention of the boy and his Typhlosion as they stopped talking and turned their heads in the general direction that the sound had come from.

 _Oh crap!_ Red thought as he quickly dived into one of the nearby bushes. A bush that just so happened to have an ample amount of thorns in it. _Ow! Ow! Ow! Why? Ow! Ow!_

Thankfully, Red managed to stifle his pained cries as the boy walked over to investigate. The footsteps came closer and closer until the boy stopped right in front of Red's hiding spot.

"Huh. I could have sworn I just saw something moving back here," the boy said as he looked around the area. Trying to ignore the thorns jabbing into his entire body, Red silently began to pray that the boy would lose interest and just walk away. However, Red's prayers were very rarely answered and this time was no exception.

"Hey, Typhlosion!" the boy called out without turning away. "Can you bring me the machete that I have in the backpack? There might be some kind of rare Pokémon hiding inside one these bushes."

"What kind of kid carries around a machete?!"

As silence descended upon the grove, Red realized too late that he had just said his thoughts out loud. Both the boy and his Typhlosion were frozen in surprise as they stared at the bush that had just spoken. Silently cursing himself for the slip-up, Red quickly tried to correct the situation.

"Er… what? You two never see a talking bush before?" If he had not been in such a desperate situation, Red would have slapped himself for saying something so stupid.

Neither intruder said anything as they just continued to stare. As Red began thinking about simply making a break for it, the boy suddenly spoke up in a clearly excited voice.

"No way! You… you're-" The boy began pointing at the bush that Red was hiding in with a strange gleam in his eyes. "You're the nature spirit who guards this area, right?"

 _You cannot be serious._ Even as Red thought this, he quickly began to come up with a plan to take advantage of this situation.

"… Sure. I mean, of course I am! I am the mighty spirit of this forest who… umm… guards this place from… evildoers… and such. Anyways, what business does a puny mortal like you have in my domain?"

"Oh, I was just visiting in the hopes that I could find something interesting here." The boy's eyes suddenly began to glow even brighter as he realized something. "Wait a second… if a spirit like you is guarding this place, then that means there has to be some kind of ancient relic around here, right? Like a legendary sword or something?"

Biting back the urge to question any of this, Red simply chose to continue playing along to divert attention away from himself.

"Er…Of course! The holy sword you seek is at the… umm… top of the mountain! Yes! All the way at the top! And it… ummm… only appears to those that are worthy so…"

Red did not even get to finish as the boy gave a loud cheer before zooming off towards the mountain.

"Thanks for the info, weird talking bush spirit thing!" the boy shouted out as he disappeared from view. His Typhlosion simply gave a sigh before giving an apologetic bow towards the bush as if he knew exactly what had been going on the whole time. With a tired look on his face, the Typhlosion made his way over to the backpack before putting it on (which completely covered him once again) and trudged after his trainer with the enormous sack of luggage in tow.

Red could not find anything to say as he simply watched the large backpack slowly fade from view. After remembering that he was still inside a thorn-filled bush, Red jumped out with a single prominent thought forming in his head: _Why do I always have to deal with the crazies?_

Hoping that he would never have to see that strange kid again, Red gave a tired sigh of his own before silently walking back to his secret base to clean himself up.

 **xxx**

Fate can be a cruel mistress at times. This was a harsh truth that many people knew to be true. Red, however, disagreed. To him, fate was not a cruel mistress but actually a puppy-kicking, genocide-inciting, maniacally laughing sadistic sociopath who loved nothing more than to make his life a living hell. And considering the things that had happened to him (as well as everything that were going to happen to him in the near future), it seemed that Red actually had a point.

After returning to his little underground suite, Red had bandaged up the various cuts that he had sustained from the thorn bush before making himself a nice, hearty Pidgey sandwich for lunch. As he ate though, he could not help but feel worried about the weird boy he had met. More specifically, he was afraid of what the boy might do in his efforts to get his imaginary sword. Knowing that the entire mountain being blown up in the process was a very real possibility, Red decided to take some preemptive measures.

After finishing his sandwich, Red took one of his various elevators up to the summit. Once there, he began to whistle a shortened version of the Route 1 theme. Just as the last few notes faded away, a large Tyranitar came out of the cave connecting the summit to the mountain pathway.

"I got another job for you," Red said in a business-like manner as the wild Tyranitar stopped in front of him. "There's a kid heading up here and I want you to keep an eye on him. I'm pretty sure he has authorization to be here so try not to directly confront him unless he does something stupid like blowing up the mountain. If he does though, just restrain him and drop him off at the eastern entrance. I'm sure the security guards will pick him up if you do that."

The Tyranitar simply gave a curt nod before extending his hand forward to receive its payment. Fully prepared for this, Red pulled out a large envelope filled with Pokédollars from his vest and handed it to his associate (why the Tyranitar wanted human currency though was still a mystery to Red). After counting the money and giving another nod, the Tyranitar headed off into the caves to follow and trail his designated target. Having worked with this Tyranitar numerous times over the year and confident in its skills of dealing with unruly intruders, Red began to feel that his problems had been successfully taken care of. With a satisfied smile on his face, Red walked over to the large boulder that was actually the door to his hidden elevator. With practiced motions, he typed in the password onto the nearly-invisible keypad and waited for the door to slide open. And it was at this moment that Red realized that fate was once again playing a cruel joke on him.

Instead of the rocky exterior sliding off to the side to reveal the elevator, the door simply made a small whirring noise in response. Confused, Red punched in the password again only for the door to remain firmly shut. Hoping that this was just a glitch in the system, Red waited a few more minutes before inputting the code again. All that followed was the same, sad whirring noise.

Red was speechless as he realized that the door was somehow broken despite the fact that he had just used the exact same elevator to reach the summit a few minutes ago. Red forced down the panic welling up inside him as he tried to figure out what to do. Deciding that getting this door working was the fastest and most inconspicuous way of getting off the summit, Red wracked his brain for anything that could help him fix this problem. In the end, the only thing that he managed to come up with was the tried and true method of kicking an object until it corrected itself.

Several minutes of violent door bashing later, Red slumped onto the ground in defeat with nothing more to show for it than a sorely aching foot. With frustration setting in, Red even contemplated getting one of his Pokémon to tear down the door. However, this left the problem of the intruder finding the fake boulder with a gaping hole that led directly to Red's base. Deciding that having his base found out would be even worse than being found himself, Red chose not to act upon this plan. Instead, he got up to check if he could sneak down the mountain towards one of his other lifts. This plan was immediately foiled however when Red saw just how dark the cave leading down was. With none of his Pokémon knowing Flash and the HM for it back at his base, Red knew it would be foolish to blindly walk through the treacherous path that was riddled with numerous pits and cliffs. Besides, with his luck he would probably run straight into the boy he so dearly wanted to avoid.

This left only one option available: fly down the mountain using Charizard. Having seen some wild Pidgeot resting at the summit before, Red knew that it was theoretically possible that Charizard could manage to fly at this high altitude. However, two things prevented Red from going through with this plan. The first of these issues were the powerful air currents that were commonly found at this height. If a particularly powerful current happened to catch hold of Charizard during his flight, both Red and his Pokémon would most likely end up becoming a smear on the rocky mountainside. And knowing his track record of unfortunate events, Red was not willing to risk it. Beyond that though, the other reason for Red's reluctance was that he was still rather uneasy about flying after the nightmarish chase by the fans. It had been over a year since then but the memory of that event still haunted him to this day. As such, Red wanted to avoid flying again if at all possible.

As the Champion tried to think of some other way of getting down the mountain, the Tyranitar from before suddenly came back to the summit. He was clearly not expecting to see Red there as he stared at the Champion with a look that silently asked why he was still on top of the mountain. Before Red could explain himself though, the Tyranitar seemed to hear something and quickly pointed at the cavern entrance with an urgent growl. While not the most eloquent way of putting things, the meaning was quite clear: We have company.

Red was now stuck in a dilemma. Going through the cavern was no longer an option which meant he could either pray to his imaginary god again for the elevator door to open or take his chances trying to fly down the mountain. While neither of these choices seemed very appealing, Red decided that the latter would be a tiny bit more likely to succeed even if it meant certain death.

Just as Red brought out the Pokéball that contained Charizard, a loud voice suddenly echoed from inside the cave.

"Man, they really need to build an elevator up here or something... Oh, hey! I think I see the way out! Come on, I'll race you up there Typhlosion!"

Red did not know if he had wasted more time up here than he originally thought or if the boy was just an unnaturally fast mountain climber. Whatever the case was, the boy was clearly less than a minute away from reaching the summit and discovering Red. Seeing the freaked out expression on Red's face, the Tyranitar decided it was time to take drastic actions and reached behind a pile of boulders to pull out a large wooden baseball bat. Realizing what the Pokémon was planning to do, Red hurriedly shook his head before voicing his disapproval.

"No, no, and no! You are not bashing people's skulls in again! I only let you do that the last time because those guys were clearly a bunch of poachers! If you kill a certified trainer who was seen going in by the security guards, then this place is definitely going to be swarming with cops! And I'm pretty sure that's something that the both of us want to avoid!"

Tyranitar seemed rather put down by this but Red ignored it as he began pushing the giant monster towards the cluster of boulders that he had pulled out his bat from.

"Stay there and stick to the original plan. Only confront the kid if he does something stupid and that's only to restrain him and remove him from the mountain. And no matter what happens, **don't use the bat!** "

After making sure that Tyranitar was well camouflaged among the rocks, Red walked up to the far end of the summit with Charizard's Pokéball in hand. Taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, Red slowly raised his hand and prepared to make his getaway.

And that was when things went horribly wrong.

"Ha ha! I totally beat you Typhlo… What the…? Is that a person standing over there?"

Having been too busy mentally preparing himself for the flight, Red had failed to hear the running footsteps that preceded the boy's arrival. As such, he had missed his window of escape by just a few seconds.

As Red was mentally beating himself up while also trying to figure out what to do (which resulted in him just staring silently ahead in real life), the boy began to walk closer towards the Champion to get a better view of him.

"I didn't think there would be anyone up here," the boy said to himself before looking directly at Red and shouting out loud. "Hey! Who are you?"

 _Maybe if I pretend to ignore him, he'll go away,_ Red thought hopefully as he refused to turn around and let out what would eventually become his trademark line.

"... ..."

"Huh. Not much of a talker, are you? Still, I can't help but feel like I've seen you somewhere before…"

 _Oh, come on!_ Red mentally screamed. _Don't tell me he's secretly one of my fans as well!_

Out loud though, he simply let loose another barrage of dots.

As the boy continued to try and identify Red, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew across the place. As Red instinctively tightened his grip on Charizard's Pokéball and grabbed onto his hat with his free hand, the boy's eyes began to gleam as he took in the sight before him.

"Now way! It can't be! You… You're…"

Red braced himself for the worst.

"You're the spirit of the sacred sword right?!"

It took a few seconds before Red could process what he had just heard. After mentally confirming that he had actually heard correctly, Red turned around to face the boy with a raised eyebrow.

What Red failed to realize was that the gust of wind just now had made him unknowingly assume a rather impressive pose. This, combined with the awe-inspiring mountaintop background and the rustling of his worn-out vest, had given Red an appearance that would not have looked out of place in an epic fantasy novel. Also, the fact that his recent thorn injuries looked like battle scars from far away only added to the heroic image.

As Red continued to wait for a response, the boy suddenly perked up as he saw the Pokéball in Red's hand and immediately began to come up with a convoluted scenario to explain what he was seeing.

"I get it now! I have to defeat you in a Pokémon battle to prove myself! Awesome! This is exactly the sort of trial that a chosen hero would have to face before attaining ultimate power! Alright then, I shall take on your challenge, great spirit of the sword!"

From what Red could tell, there were several ways he could handle this situation. One was to simply fly off as originally planned. However he strongly suspected that the boy would follow if he tried to do so and another aerial chase was the last thing he wanted. The other was to go against everything he had just said a few minutes ago and signal for his Tyranitar associate to bash the kid on the head with the bat. Sadly, this ran the very serious risk of bringing over the cops as he had previously mentioned. The third and final option (and one that Red could not believe that he was even considering) was to just play along with the boy's delusions like he had before. He already knew this was a terrible idea but it was the only way that he could have even the tiniest chance of sneaking away without causing some sort of disastrous incident.

With an enormous mental sigh that could have toppled a mountain, Red quickly swapped Charizard's Pokéball for Pikachu's and gave the slightest inclination of a nod to the expectant stare that the boy was still giving him. As expected, the boy was beyond exuberant about being able to challenge what he thought to be a heroic spirit. What wasn't expected though was what he said next.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself! Heh heh. Guess I got caught up in the moment. Alright, listen up spirit of the sacred sword! I am Ethan, the Champion of the Johto region, conqueror of the Kanto gyms, and the child of destiny who shall become the greatest trainer known to mankind and Pokémon alike! Know that the sword you guard shall be in worthy hands after I prove to you the full extent of my might! Now, come! Let us battle!"

There were a lot of things that Red could have questioned about this statement but they were all ignored in favor of one overarching thought: _They've really lowered the standards for Champions nowadays, haven't they?_

And with that, the two trainers threw out their first Pokémon as the most iconic battle in the history of the Pokémon universe began…


	5. The Battle for Everyone's Sanity

**Sorry about the massive delay. Getting rid of that time-traveling duck took a lot more effort than I originally thought. To make up for this, I made this chapter extra long so everyone can enjoy even more randomness than usual. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Ch 4: The Battle for Everyone's Sanity**

"... ..."

"Umm… I'm just warming up…"

Regardless of what Ethan would claim about the battle in the years to come, the fact remained that the opening moves of the showdown had been nothing short of a slaughter. Ethan had thrown out his Politoed, Noctowl, Gyarados, and Togetic only for them to be instantly fried by Pikachu's earth-shattering Thunderbolt. To the boy's credit, all of the defeated Pokémon seemed powerful in their own right but it was clear that they were far below Pikachu's level of power. Of course, it also did not help that most of Ethan's Pokémon had been weak to electric attacks either. For the first time since Red had seen him, Ethan dropped his overly enthusiastic smile as he tried to hide his nervousness.

"Alright, I'll admit you're a lot stronger than I thought." Red simply raised an eyebrow at this. "Okay, fine! You're miles above what I expected. However! I'm not out of this yet and I've yet to bring out… him."

With a shaking hand, Ethan dramatically pulled out his fifth Pokéball and looked at it with a clearly worried expression. Even Red could not help but feel a bit apprehensive as Ethan took a deep breath to calm himself before reluctantly tossing the ball forward as if he was summoning some horrifying harbinger of destruction. With a flash of light that seemed brighter than usual, the ball flew open to reveal…

A Furret. A simple brown Furret.

"... ..."

"Hey, don't judge! I don't really have a lot of options left, okay?"

From the looks of things, the Furret was clearly Ethan's HM Slave as it looked pretty confused as to why it was being called out into battle. Feeling rather sorry for the poor thing, Red signaled towards Pikachu to give the first move to the Furret. While Pikachu would have normally argued against an order like this, even the sadistic electric rodent felt a tiny amount of pity for the pathetic HM Slave. Of course, that would not stop him from completely atomizing the poor creature if he so much as breathed on his fur but that was another matter entirely.

Surprised that his Furret was not turned into a pile of ashes yet, Ethan mentally fumbled for a bit before finally taking advantage of the chance that he had been given.

"Alright! Furret, obliterate them with Strength!"

Furret immediately began to glow with a white light as it gathered energy into itself. With a loud battle cry, Furret began charging at Pikachu with its front paw outstretched. Right as the punch was about to land, Red suddenly got the strange feeling that something terrible would happen if the attack connected. He quickly motioned for Pikachu to dodge the attack but his warning came too late. With a bright flash of light, Furret's punch made direct contact with Pikachu's face… only to do absolutely no damage.

Despite its impressive presentation, the attack did not even manage to budge Pikachu. For several tense seconds, Furret simply stood there with its tiny fist resting squarely on Pikachu's forehead. Then, with a smile that looked utterly demonic, Pikachu spoke up.

"Pika… Pi…"

Whatever these words meant, it was enough to freeze the poor Furret in absolute terror. Without a hint of hesitation, Pikachu unleashed its ultimate Thunder attack directly at its helpless victim. By the time both trainers could see through the debris that the attack had created, absolutely nothing remained of the brown ferret. Not even ashes were left as the air around them continued to crackle with electricity.

Silence permeated the summit as the two trainers continued to stare at the explosion site in shock. Red was obviously mortified and mentally braced himself for the obvious outcry that Ethan would no doubt unleash. After a long bout of uncomfortable silence, Ethan gave a sigh and finally spoke up.

"Well… there goes another one of my HM Slaves. Still at least this one didn't get eaten like the last one."

"... ..."

"What?" Ethan said in response to Red's incredulous look. "How was I supposed to know that Erika's Victreebel had a taste for Sentrets? Besides, they're just HM Slaves. It's not like they're exactly valuable or anything."

As a professional trainer and proud owner of several HM Slaves himself, Red really did not have much to say against this. Instead he chose to simply cross his arms and raised a questioning eyebrow at Ethan.

"Oh, right… I still need to defeat you." Ethan looked a bit sheepish as he realized that he only had one Pokémon left while Red still had not shown anything other than his Pikachu. However, his determined look soon returned as he turned around and shouted out into the cave behind him. "Hey, Typhlosion! I need you up here pronto!"

It took roughly five minutes before the enormous backpack came into view. Just like before, Typhlosion was completely hidden from view giving the impression that the backpack was slowly dragging itself out of the cave and up to the summit. Several more minutes later, Typhlosion set the backpack down a few feet away from Ethan and crawled out from underneath looking practically dead.

With another sigh, Ethan walked over and pulled out a Full Restore from the giant backpack and used it on Typhlosion. As he did so, he gave a quick run-down as to what had happened during Typhlosion's absence. Upon hearing the part about Red being some kind of ancient spirit and the ensuing Pokémon battle, Typhlosion rolled his eyes before turning his head and giving Red an apologetic look. Typhlosion was used to dealing with Ethan's delusions of grandeur but this one seemed to be particularly severe. As such, Typhlosion was genuinely feeling sorry for this poor trainer who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. By the time Ethan finished explaining, Typhlosion was back in top condition and began stretching in preparation for the battle.

"So… think you can do it?" Ethan asked. Typhlosion just gave a casual shrug as he walked over to the designated arena.

From what Red could tell, Ethan's Typhlosion was a bit on the small side. That, combined with the tired look in his eyes, made Ethan's final choice in the battle very questionable. Regardless though, Red prepared to take down his opponent before Pikachu could take matters into his own hands again. As soon as Typhlosion and Ethan signaled that they were ready, Red motioned for Pikachu to use his standard Thunderbolt.

Unfortunately, Pikachu's inner bloodlust had been awakened by the last battle and was starting to feel rather annoyed by this pointless charade. Ignoring Red's signal, Pikachu gave an evil-looking grin before blasting out another full-power Thunder. Before Red could do anything, Pikachu's attack made direct contact with Typhlosion and the summit exploded with electrical energy once again.

Pikachu simply looked at the destruction his attack had caused with a content look as he turned around to head back inside his Pokéball. However, he immediately stopped when he heard something from behind him. Something that sounded oddly like… a yawn.

Hardly daring to believe it, Pikachu turned around and watched with utter shock as the smoke and debris cleared to reveal Typhlosion still standing with barely a scratch on him. Even more surprising, the fire Pokémon looked completely unimpressed by the attack as he gave another theatrical yawn before glancing backwards at Ethan for further instructions.

While Pikachu and Red just stared in shock, Ethan gave a sigh before issuing his command.

"Alright then… use Flame Wheel. Just make sure to tone it down a notch. I don't want you bringing down this entire mountain and ruining my chance of getting a legendary sword."

Typhlosion gave a smirk as a blazing red flame appeared on the back of his neck. Turning his eyes on the still-stunned Pikachu, Typhlosion expanded the flame until his entire body was cloaked in a fiery veil. Then, with barely any hint of a warning, Typhlosion charged at unbelievable speed. However, Pikachu managed to gather his wits just as his opponent was within a yard of him and prepared to launch another devastating Thunder at point-blank range. Just as Pikachu tried to throw out his ultimate attack, Typhlosion suddenly vanished from view. Before Pikachu could react, Typhlosion reappeared behind him and slammed into him at speeds that could have toppled an armored tank. The end result was Pikachu being sent flying before crashing into a nearby cluster of boulders with enough force to shatter the smaller rocks while leaving sizable cracks in the rest.

As Red stared with an open mouth at this, Ethan loudly let out an exuberant cheer.

"Whoo! Nice one Typhlosion! I guess all that weight training actually did some good!"

Typhlosion simply rolled his eyes again before dispelling the flames around him. The fire on his collar was still left on though as he patiently waited for Red to recover and send out his next Pokémon.

After nearly a minute, Red recalled his unconscious Pikachu before throwing out his Blastoise. From what he figured, his best chance of taking down Typhlosion was to analyze him while also whittling his health down with a type advantage.

As Blastoise emerged with a mighty roar, Typhlosion gave an amused smile as if he had been expecting Red to make a move like this. After getting a confirmation nod from Ethan, Typhlosion took a deep breath and took on a fighting stance as if waiting for Blastoise to make the first move.

Unlike Ethan, Red was quick to take advantage of this and motioned for Blastoise to use Surf. Responding almost instantaneously, Blastoise aimed at his foe and fired an enormous volume of water from his cannons which took on the form of a giant wave. The attack seemed to make direct contact with its target as Ethan's half of the battlefield was completely flooded. While the sight of Ethan floundering about in the sudden torrent was amusing, Red was too experienced to let down his guard at something like this. As such, he managed to see a barely visible red blur jump on top of a nearby boulder to avoid the attack before making a beeline towards his Blastoise. Reacting instantly, Red motioned towards his left. Blastoise moved in perfect sync to his trainer's commands and shifted towards the indicated direction before letting loose another blast of water which neutralized a Flamethrower that was headed towards him. As the two attacks collided, a giant cloud of steam was produced which covered most of the battlefield.

With their trainers temporarily blocked from view by the steam, the two Pokémon were left to continue the battle at their own discretion. Typhlosion was the first to act as he used the steam cover to sneak around to Blastoise's backside and aimed a punch at the giant turtle's head. However, it was clear that Blastoise was a capable brawler even when alone as he quickly turned around and stopped Typhlosion's punch by grabbing it with his own hand. Just as Blastoise was about to swing the fiery badger through the air and smash him into the ground, Typhlosion gave off a little smirk. Seeing this, Blastoise took a closer look at his opponent and realized too late what was going to happen. Before he could react, Typhlosion swung his other fist forward which was suddenly covered in sparks. Trapped in such close quarters, Blastoise could do nothing as the ThunderPunch made direct contact with his body.

Outside of the steam cloud, Red and Ethan waited anxiously to see what was happening. Suddenly a giant electrical explosion shook the entire mountaintop as the smoke finally began to clear. As the two trainers watched with open mouths, Typhlosion walked out of the fading steam dragging an unconscious Blastoise behind him. With a casual swing, the fiery badger tossed the two hundred pound turtle over to Red. Thankfully, the Kanto Champion managed to recover from his shock just in time to return Blastoise to his Pokéball before his Pokémon crushed him.

Red gave Typhlosion a glare for this as he tried to figure out whom to send out next. Typhlosion pretended not to notice as he simply stood there with a bored expression while his trainer began jumping up and down in joy once more.

"Awesome job! Now we're one step closer to getting that legendary sword and ruling the world! Ha ha! I can hardly wait!"

 _Okay, there is no way I'm losing to this idiot,_ Red thought with growing frustration. The fact that he had not been able to gain further insight on his opponent from the last battle only served to annoy him further. All he knew for now was that Typhlosion had some form of electric attack as well as Flame Wheel and Flamethrower. However, without knowing exactly what the attack was, Red was hesitant on using Charizard as he had originally planned. With that in mind, Red decided to stall for a bit longer until he had a solid idea of exactly what he was up against.

Deciding that saying anything now would only lead to more shenanigans, Red kept up his silent act and called out his Espeon. Thankfully, his Pokémon was able to read his mind with his powers so it was a lot easier to convey his orders than during the last two battles.

 _Use Psychic and Reflect to keep your opponent at bay so that we can analyze his attacks and movements. If you see an opening though, make sure to hit him with everything you've got._

Espeon gave a slight nod before releasing a blast of psychic energy towards Typhlosion. As expected, Typhlosion turned into a blur again as it dodged the incoming attack and headed directly towards his opponent. Much to his dismay however, he realized that getting into close range of Espeon was futile as the Psychic Pokémon had set up a large boundary field around himself with Reflect. After bouncing off of the shield, Typhlosion quickly landed on the ground and let loose a mighty Flamethrower. Not wanting to test the durability of his psychic shield against an attack of that magnitude, Espeon quickly grabbed a couple of boulders with his powers to form a rocky barrier. While this did block off the attack, both Red and Espeon noted with great shock that most of the boulders had actually melted from the heat. Realizing that letting their opponent fire off another deadly attack like that would be foolish, Red quickly revised his plan.

 _Espeon, use Psychic to throw those boulders at Typhlosion. That should tire him out while also stopping him from using another full-powered attack._

With another nod, Espeon followed through with the command. Being a rather rocky mountaintop, there was no shortage of ammo for Espeon to use as he began raining down a miniature avalanche worth of boulders.

Surprisingly, this actually seemed to have some effect as Typhlosion finally lost the indifferent look he had been wearing the whole time and put on a slight scowl as he weaved through the boulders crashing down towards him. While none of the rocks made direct contact with him, it was obvious that dodging this many projectiles was exhausting even for Typhlosion. As the first volley finally ended, Typhlosion was seen standing amidst the boulders breathing rather heavily.

 _We got him now,_ Red thought triumphantly as both he and Espeon gave a satisfied smile.

On the other end of the battlefield, Ethan was being surprisingly quiet. However, the look on his face indicated that his silence was not due to worry but because he was busy thinking about something. While Ethan was not one for putting much thought into anything he did, this time seemed to be different. After carefully judging his opponent and looking at his Typhlosion's condition, Ethan finally spoke up.

"Hey, do you think you can pull off that technique we've been working on?"

Typhlosion seemed surprised to hear this as he turned around to face his trainer. When he saw the serious look on Ethan's face, Typhlosion slowly gave a nod while also putting on a questioning look.

"Yeah, I know we haven't perfected it but this is an emergency," Ethan replied with a shrug. "It's clear that our opponent is even stronger than Blue was and I don't think conventional attacks are going to cut it. Besides, I've thought about it and it looks like that technique would be the ultimate counter to Espeon's attack as long as you can properly materialize it."

Typhlosion still seemed a bit hesitant to follow through on this but eventually decided to trust his trainer. While Ethan was a bit… overdramatic at times, he tended to show off his talented and sharp-minded side when things got tough. And considering the dire situation that they were in now, there was no better time to listen to what Ethan said.

As Espeon lifted up another group of boulders, Typhlosion covered his entire body in fire once more. However, instead of rushing in at Espeon like Red expected, Typhlosion simply stood in place with his eyes closed as if he was charging up for some kind of attack. As he did so, Ethan suddenly took on what he thought to be a dramatic pose as he began a strange chant.

" _I am the wick of my flame._

 _Flint is my body and fire is my_ -"

Ethan's theatrics was quickly cut short when Typhlosion opened his eyes and turned to glare at his trainer. While Typhlosion was willing to follow Ethan's plan, he was not going to tolerate his trainer's mind-numbing antics during such a precarious situation. Rather miffed about being interrupted, Ethan crossed his arms and gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment.

"Sheesh. Where's your sense of drama?" Typhlosion simply continued to glare at him in response. "Alright, fine. I'll skip the incantation but I'm still calling out the name of the attack when you use it."

Typhlosion rolled his eyes but figured it was the best he was going to get. Returning his focus onto the battle, Typhlosion began channeling his energy again as the fire surrounding him began to grow brighter. Unfortunately for him, Espeon had taken advantage of this convenient interlude to surround his opponent on all sides with levitating boulders. As it stood, Typhlosion was about to be buried underneath a virtual rockslide that would fly in from all directions.

 _I'm sure that Typhlosion will survive… probably,_ Red thought before turning back to his Espeon. _Anyways, it looks like their trump card will take a while to use. Let's finish them off before they can get that chance!_

With a loud battle cry from Espeon, the boulders were finally launched towards their target. However, Typhlosion did not need as long of a charge time as Red had thought and he opened his eyes with a confident smile just as the boulders were within a few meters from crushing him. Seeing his Pokémon finish his preparations, Ethan gave a smile of his own as he took on his dramatic pose once more.

"Time to show them our ultimate move!" Ethan shouted out. "Unlimited Flame Works!"

Even before Ethan had finished calling out the attack's name, a barrage of miniature fireballs were launched from the flames surrounding Typhlosion. With perfect accuracy, the fireballs flew into the air and blasted apart all of the boulders in midair. However, this was not the full extent of Typhlosion's secret technique as a ring of fire suddenly surrounded the entire battlefield. As Red and Espeon watched with growing shock, multiple pillars of fire suddenly shot out of the ground at irregular intervals causing the mountaintop to take on the appearance of an active volcano. Trapped within this fiery landscape and having his attack completely neutralized, Espeon could not help but feel worried for the first time during the battle.

 _Stay calm,_ Red told his Pokémon as he quickly analyzed the situation. _A flashy attack like this has to cost an enormous amount of energy to maintain. If you keep holding him back with those boulders, we might be able to tire him out and then finish him off with a head-on psychic blast._

Espeon regained his composure at this as he gave a nod and levitated another group of boulders. Seeing this, Ethan gave a little smirk.

"Are you two seriously going to continue fighting? Oh, well. I guess I'll have to enlighten you two seeing as how neither of you seems to fully understand the situation you're in." Judging from his opponent's silence, Ethan decided it was safe to continue on with his explanation. "Unlimited Flame Works transforms the battlefield into one that Typhlosion fully controls. In it, he has access to practically every known form of fire attacks he has seen and analyzed. And considering the amount of battles we've been in, you can bet that he has a ton of attacks recorded and ready to use at a moment's notice. To put it simply, you have absolutely no chance of winning now."

While Red believed that telling your opponent about your secret attack was an idiotic move, he could not argue with the fact that Ethan actually did have the liberty to gloat about his current situation. From what Red was seeing, this technique was far beyond anything that he and his team had ever faced before. However, the Champion of Kanto was not one to simply back down from a challenge and decided to see just how far he could make it against such impossible-looking odds.

Seeing the resolute look on Red's face, Ethan shook his head with a sigh.

"You know, it's kind of pointless to continue this battle. But then again, I guess it would be a bit anti-climactic if you just gave up now." Saying this, Ethan put on his silly little grin again as he faced down his opponent with an equally determined look. "Here we come, Spirit of the Sacred Sword. Do you have enough rocks at your disposal?"

With that, an incredible crossfire began. For every boulder that Espeon hurled towards Typhlosion, a fireball was summoned from the flaming boundary field and pillars to counter it. Taking a closer look, Red saw that each of these fireballs were actually modified versions of various known fire attacks such as Ember and Fire Blast. Even more surprising though was the fact that each of these fireballs had just enough power to neutralize its designated target without wasting energy. Just like Ethan had explained, Typhlosion actually did seem to have complete control over the fiery battleground as he instantly analyzed and efficiently countered everything that was being used against him. Even the bursts of psychic energy that Espeon tried to dish out towards Typhlosion's backside were being shot down as if the fiery badger had eyes all throughout the place. After nearly a minute of this exchange, it became obvious that Espeon was fighting a losing battle. Even with all his effort, Espeon could not match the speed at which the fireballs were being summoned. As such, the tables quickly turned and Espeon became the defender as Typhlosion fired off a flurry of fireballs directly at him. Reacting quickly, Espeon unleashed a blast of psychic energy to ward off the attack. While this did dispel the fireballs, it gave the opportunity that Typhlosion had been seeking. With all of his power diverted to fending off the fireballs, Espeon had to lower his Reflect for a fraction of a second. This was all Typhlosion needed as he charged in with a raging Flame Wheel and slammed directly into his defenseless opponent. With a spectacular explosion, Espeon was sent flying out of the arena and landed in a heap next to an awe-struck Red.

"And down goes number three!" Ethan shouted out with a cheer. "Let's keep up the winning streak Typhlosion!"

Typhlosion decided to simply remain silent and conserve his strength. While he was maintaining a strong front to intimidate his opponent, he was actually using up a huge amount of energy to maintain his Unlimited Flame Works. From what he estimated, he had at least another five minutes before he had to shut down his boundary field or risk fainting from exhaustion.

Thankfully for Typhlosion, Red severely overestimated his opponent's stamina. As such, he did not bother stalling for time as he quickly returned Espeon to his Pokéball and sent out Venusaur. While Red knew that Venusaur was a terrible choice considering the situation, the fact remained that he needed to use his grass Pokémon eventually and it was better to use him now than as his final Pokémon.

 _Besides,_ Red thought, _it'll still be in my favor if Venusaur manages to get even one lucky hit in before being taken down. After all, every little bit of damage matters at this point._

Sadly, Red's hopeful thoughts were instantly vaporized the moment the battle started. The titanic floral beast had just enough time to let out a roar before being blasted from all sides by a barrage of fireballs. With a look bordering on frustration and resignation, Red recalled his now extra-crispy Pokémon as Ethan began to do a victory dance on the other side.

As far as Red could tell, he now had the choice of using Charizard next despite his weakness to Typhlosion's electric attack or he could hold onto him as a one-hit finisher. After taking a few seconds to think about it, Red decided to go with the latter. If things went according to plan, Snorlax would be able to prolong the battle with his tankiness and possibly tire out Typhlosion to the point that a speedy attack from Charizard could finish him off. Figuring there was not much else he could do other than that, Red called out his Snorlax into the fray.

Just as with Venusaur, Snorlax was assaulted by a torrent of fireballs as soon as the battle started. Just as Ethan tried to let out a cheer though, Snorlax appeared out of the smoke and made a surprisingly speedy dash towards Typhlosion. While others would have been too surprised to react in time, Typhlosion managed to know what Snorlax was planning thanks to his boundary field's effects. With barely a second to spare, Typhlosion jumped out of the way as Snorlax flattened the area he had just been in with a Body Slam. Seeing the crater that was left behind, Typhlosion realized that treating this opponent lightly would mean certain doom for him. With a brief burst of focus, Typhlosion created an uncountable amount of fireballs that immediately flew towards Snorlax. However, Red was prepared this time and gave a short hand signal that Snorlax immediately acted upon. Gathering his hands together in a meditative stance, Snorlax stood in place with a strangely peaceful look on his face as the fireballs made contact. The entire mountaintop shook from the explosions as both trainers were nearly blasted backwards by the ensuing shockwaves. As the smoke finally cleared, Ethan was surprised to see that Snorlax was still standing. Realizing that the giant Pokémon had tanked through the attack by using Amnesia, Ethan gave an impressed smile.

"I've got to hand it to you spirit. You really are an amazing opponent. I never thought that anyone would be able to drag on a fight with my Typhlosion for this long."

Red himself could not help but give a small smile at this. While he still found Ethan to be rather annoying, he could readily admit that the energetic kid was the first trainer to give him such an intense fight in quite a while. While he truly did enjoy the peace and comfort that he had lounged around in for the last year and a half, Red realized that he had actually missed the excitement of being in a fierce battle with a worthy opponent. And from the battle so far, Red could tell that Ethan and his Typhlosion were clearly at the ranks of a real Champion and were definitely strong enough to go toe-to-toe with him.

Having acknowledged each other's strength, the two returned their focus onto the battle. From what Red could tell, the only way to weaken Typhlosion and set-up a potential sweep by Charizard was to dispel the boundary field created by Unlimited Flame Works. Luckily, Red figured that he had just the move to do so.

With a few hand signals, Red managed to convey his plan to Snorlax. With a grim-faced nod, Snorlax took a deep breath… and flopped down to take a nap. Ethan and Typhlosion were so confused by this bizarre behavior that it took them a few seconds to realize that Snorlax was actually restoring his health by using Rest. Knowing that whittling down Snorlax's HP would be even harder now thanks to the usage of Amnesia, Ethan quickly ordered Typhlosion to do as much damage as possible before Snorlax woke up. With a loud battle cry, Typhlosion summoned another slew of fireballs to blast his opponent with. Even as the fiery maelstrom began to bombard him, Snorlax continued to sleep without a care in the world.

After nearly a minute of this with no noticeable results, Typhlosion decided to switch tactics. Figuring that he would be able to end this battle with a fully powered Flame Wheel, Typhlosion stopped the rain of fireballs and began to gather energy into himself. If all went according to plan, Typhlosion would have just enough strength left to hold up his boundary field when facing his last opponent. And considering the advantages he held within his ultimate technique, victory would then be completely secured.

Unbeknownst to Typhlosion however, Snorlax was also gathering up his own energy even while sleeping. While he had not been able to understand the exact thought process of Red thanks to his unusual bout of silence, Snorlax was able to infer from the situation and hand motions what he needed to do. With that in mind, Snorlax was fully prepared to face defeat in this battle for the sake of his team.

After a few seconds, Typhlosion finished boosting up his signature move and charged in as a red blur. Just as Typhlosion was a foot away from blasting away Snorlax, his opponent unveiled an unexpected surprise. Having just finished charging up in the nick of time, Snorlax let loose a tremendous Snore attack. Much to his surprise, Typhlosion realized that the attack was not as strong as he expected it to be as the sound blast did nothing more than barely slow down his charge. In the end, this sudden attack did not make any difference as Typhlosion successfully landed the Flame Wheel and launched Snorlax a good meter or so away. As the large Pokémon fell to the ground in an unconscious heap, Typhlosion let out a satisfied smile as he turned around expecting to see Ethan's jubilant face. However, that was when he noticed that something was wrong. Instead of cheering, Ethan was frozen with a look of utter shock. And looking around, it was not hard to see the cause for Ethan's surprise.

Instead of a fiery boundary field, the mountaintop was back to being its usual rocky self as not even a single spark of ember could be seen throughout the place. With this shocking sight, Typhlosion finally realized that he no longer felt the strain of maintaining his technique. For a few seconds, Typhlosion was completely lost as to what was going on before he finally realized the actual motive for Snorlax's final attack. Instead of aiming for him, Snorlax had purposefully blasted his attack all throughout the battlefield. With his unstoppable charging speed and fiery energy field protecting him, Typhlosion had been relatively unaffected by the wide-range attack but his boundary field had not been so lucky. With a single, concentrated burst of energy, Snorlax had done what Ethan and his Pokémon thought to be impossible and shattered Typhlosion's ultimate technique.

 _Great job, Snorlax,_ Red thought with a satisfied smile as he recalled his Pokémon. _With that weird technique gone, Charizard should now have a real shot at winning this!_

With that uplifting though, Red called out his final Pokémon with a triumphant look.

As soon as Ethan and Typhlosion saw Charizard, they knew that they were in serious trouble. Based on his quick movements as Charizard took to the air, Ethan was able to guess that his opponent was planning on finishing off his exhausted partner with a speedy strike from the skies. And with Unlimited Flame Works destroyed and no time to try and recreate it, Typhlosion was practically a sitting duck.

As all this ran through his mind, Ethan realized with a fair amount of surprise that his opponent had masterfully planned this entire situation since the last battle and had succeeded in luring his opponent into a corner. Realizing that he was facing someone who clearly possessed the strength and knowledge of a Champion, Ethan took a closer look at who he had originally thought to be some mystical spirit. For some reason, his opponent's vest and hat caught Ethan's eye and he vaguely recalled seeing someone who wore the exact same thing not too long ago. In fact, he was fairly certain that he had also seen this exact same Pokémon line-up as well. After a brief moment of intense concentration, Ethan managed to remember that he had seen a photo of his opponent standing with his Pokémon somewhere before. However, he could not tell where exactly he had seen this photo and he was left even more confused than ever.

While Ethan was still struggling to recall the identity of his opponent, Typhlosion was more focused on the imminent battle. He knew that the moment Charizard swooped in, he would be a goner. Even though he still had a bit of energy left, the last five battles had left Typhlosion in a pretty exhausted state. While he had succeeded in not taking any serious damage, the sheer length of this confrontation was starting to wear him down. And judging from the Charizard's movements, Typhlosion knew he would have a hard time avoiding his opponent even if he was in perfect condition. Not knowing exactly what to do in this situation, Typhlosion turned around to see if Ethan had any ideas. Much to his dismay, however, he found his trainer spacing out instead of focusing on the battle.

Ethan was brought out of his reverie when Typhlosion gave him a loud, angry growl. Realizing that they still had a battle to fight, Ethan finally returned back to reality and quickly assessed the situation. After a few seconds, Ethan came to the conclusion that the only way to even have a remote chance of winning now was to simply square off against Charizard in a head-to-head collision. Ethan knew it was a crude plan and that it was very unlikely to succeed but it was the best that they could do in the current situation.

"Listen up, Typhlosion," Ethan eventually commanded. "Put in every last bit energy into your ThunderPunch and try to hit your opponent head-on when he eventually dives in. You won't be able to avoid his attack though so this will all come down to who can survive this final trade."

Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, Typhlosion followed his trainer's orders and began charging up his ThunderPunch. Seeing this, Red realized what his opponent was planning and decided to play along. While he could have created a plan to end this without even giving his opponent a chance, Red could not help but feel that it was fitting to end this epic battle with one final clash. Wondering if Ethan's love for theatrics was beginning to rub off on him, Red signaled to Charizard to prepare a dive-bombing Slash attack.

Time came to a standstill as the two Pokémon stared each other down while preparing to strike at a moment's notice. Absolute silence covered the mountaintop as the world itself seemed to be holding its breath to see who the ultimate victor would be. After a grueling confrontation, it all came down to this one final attack. With a determined look on their faces, both Charizard and Typhlosion acknowledged the other as a worthy opponent and gave a respectful nod. With that, the two prepared themselves and-

"HOLY MAGIKARP! YOU'RE RED, AREN'T YOU?!"

All the tension in the air immediately evaporated with Ethan's shout. Typhlosion couldn't help but look back at his trainer with a confused look while Ethan began to babble some incoherent nonsense as he mentally broke down from the shock of suddenly remembering this important fact. On the other side of the battlefield, both Charizard and Red were frozen in shock and horror at being identified. Red in particular was severely affected by this and was close to having a mental breakdown of his own as he started panicking from being found out. Awkward silence replaced the tense atmosphere from before as the two trainers and their Pokémon tried and failed to gather their bearings.

Looking back on it, Ethan was surprised that he did not recognize who his opponent was the moment he saw him. Just a couple of days ago, Ethan had accessed the Hall of Fame on his PC out of boredom and happened to see a picture of Red and his Pokémon proudly displayed as one of the more recent Champions. He had even spent a few minutes reading over the news articles about Red detailing his mysterious disappearance over a year ago. Despite all this prior knowledge though, Ethan (being the hyperactive drama-queen that he was) had completely forgotten about that until now due to his little delusions of grandeur.

Red, of course, was heavily mortified about facing his absolute worst case scenario. Now that Ethan knew who he was, it was only a matter of time before his secret hideout was discovered. Ethan would no doubt brag about seeing Red to everyone and it would not take long before the fans caught wind of this and stormed Mt. Silver. After all the hard work he had to go through to disappear from the public eye, he was now doomed to return to his old lifestyle of living off of Caterpies and sleeping in landfills.

 _Still,_ Red's optimistic side told him, _it's possible that Ethan will respect your privacy and keep quiet about this if you tell him about the situation._

This thought was practically shot dead with Ethan's following outburst.

"I can't believe you're actually the legendary lost Champion! Your disappearance is considered one of the greatest modern day mysteries! Oh my god! I need to contact the people at the Radio Tower so that I can tell the whole world about this! I'll be known as the trainer who actually found and battled with the missing Champion of Kanto! I'll become the most famous person of the modern era!"

Ethan was so busy fantasizing about his success that he did not notice the large, hulking figure that suddenly appeared behind him. A large, hulking figure that just so happened to have a wooden baseball bat in his hands.

With a loud _thwack!_ that resounded across the entire mountaintop, Red's Tyranitar associate knocked out Ethan with a direct swing to the back of the trainer's head. While the blow had not been as powerful as it could have been, it was still strong enough to be potentially lethal as Ethan crumpled onto the ground in a lifeless heap.

For a couple of minutes, no one could figure out what to say or do as they stared at the bizarre sight of the bat-wielding behemoth standing before the collapsed trainer with a rather guilty look on his face. When Red finally managed to gather enough sense to give the Tyranitar a questioning look, the Pokémon could only give a sheepish shrug.

Having been in the far corner of the battlefield, Tyranitar's hiding place had been relatively unaffected by all the commotion of the battle. Thanks to that, he had managed to see the entire confrontation and had been silently waiting to see if his client would need some help in dealing with this intruder. Just when he had been thinking that Red would be able to deal with the situation on his own, Ethan had shouted out his revelation and caused the subsequent dilemma. Knowing that his main source of income would be jeopardized if Ethan told the world about Red, Tyranitar had decided to take matters into his own hands and had snuck out to deal with the annoying little problem. However, he had overestimated just how tough Ethan's head would be and as a result was now standing over what was presumably a dead body.

After a long bout of uncomfortable silence, Red finally spoke up for the first time since his battle on top of the mountain.

"Well… I guess this just goes to show why you need to have a Repel with you when you're at a mountain." As all of the gathered Pokémon gave him a questioning look, Red gave a silly little grin. "Get it? It's to keep away all the _bats_."

The only responses Red got for his terrible joke was a whack to the head from Charizard and a pair of exasperated sighs.


	6. Base Crashers

**Apologies for the lack of updates last week. I was sick during that time and it honestly felt like a Tyranitar was beating me over the head with a bat continuously. Now that I think about it, maybe that was karmic justice for what I put Ethan through. Oh, well. Even if that was the case, it won't stop me from tormenting him even further. After all, we've still got plenty more misadventures to get through and Ethan will have a... prominent role in all of them.**

 **Moving on, let me thank everyone who left a review last chapter. I didn't get a chance to respond to them last week but know that I read and appreciated every last one. Things will start to pick up both in story and in real life so I hope all of you continue to enjoy this work of madness.**

* * *

 **Ch 5: Base Crashers**

When Ethan finally came to, he found himself lying on top of a stack of old cardboard boxes. After getting past his massive headache and finally gathering his bearings, he saw that the rest of the room was relatively empty asides from a few disused collectibles scattered around. Ethan guessed that he was inside a storage closet of sorts based on what he was seeing and tried to recall what had happened. Before he could do so however, he suddenly heard a voice on the other side of the door.

"You're doing it wrong. You need to take off the head first before you take out the organs."

Ethan immediately noted with great unease just how calm the male voice sounded despite the subject matter being discussed. Things took an even more unpleasant turn when Ethan heard a low growl followed immediately by an ominous splattering noise.

"I said cut off the head, not smash it to bits!" the voice from before said with an accompanying sigh. "Something tells me that you're not exactly cut out for this. Oh, well. I'll take care of the rest so wash yourself off before bringing out our… guest."

Based on the current situation, Ethan had little doubt that he was the one being referred to. And judging from the detesting tone that the voice had just used, it was obvious that whatever he had planned for him could not be good.

After the brief sound of running water was heard, footsteps were heard approaching Ethan's room. Firmly convinced that he was trapped inside a mad scientist's laboratory, Ethan looked around for anything to protect himself with before he was dragged outside to be dissected. Unfortunately, the closest thing to a weapon that the room had was a large squeaky hammer sticking out of a nearby box. Figuring it was still better than nothing, Ethan grabbed the toy and silently waited for what he assumed was his captor's evil minion to open the door. Ethan's heart began to beat louder and louder as the footsteps drew ever closer. By the time the footsteps reached the door, Ethan was hardly breathing as he tensed himself to act on a moment's notice.

Time seemed to run in slow-motion for Ethan as the door to his room slowly turned before being opened. Reacting instantly, Ethan gave a loud yell as he jumped out with his mighty squeaky hammer in hand. Completely intoxicated with adrenaline, Ethan did not properly register what he was seeing as he swung down his weapon of doom at the first thing that entered his vision.

"Taste death, foul beast!" Ethan shouted out as a symphony of comical _squeaks_ echoed out as he unleashed his fury.

It took roughly half a minute before Ethan recovered enough sense to finally realize exactly what he had been hitting this whole time. Or more specifically, whom.

"Wait a second… Is that you Typhlosion?"

His Pokémon simply grabbed the squeaky hammer from his hands and bonked him on the head as an answer. As Ethan stood in a daze (both from being smacked as well as being utterly confused), another figure entered what Ethan recognized as an enormous kitchen.

"What's all the commotion about? I swear, if that kid destroyed something I'm going to feed him to the wild Ursarings!"

As he saw the trainer standing before him, Ethan finally remembered everything. He recalled the mountaintop battle and how he had identified his opponent as the lost Champion Red before somehow losing consciousness. From the looks of things, Red and Typhlosion had brought him to this unknown location after that. However, Ethan did not have much time to dwell on this as he noticed the large bloody knife that Red was currently holding as he glared at Ethan. Recalling the conversation that he had heard a few minutes ago, Ethan began to panic once more as he figured Red was an insane psychopath who was going to silence him for finding out the truth.

"Please don't kill me!" Ethan yelled out as he bowed before his senior. "I won't tell anyone about you so please just let me go! I… I'm too young to die! I haven't even accomplished my dream yet! And… and… no one will be able to look after my sick mother if I die here! Without my medical funding, she won't last a week! Also, my girlfriend has a traumatic past and will most likely waste away in grief if she finds out that the only person she could depend on has died! So please, for the sake of all these people, spare me!"

Red stayed silent for a while before looking at Typhlosion to check if Ethan was telling the truth. Much to the Johto Champion's dismay, Typhlosion crossed his arms and gave a derisive snort. Judging from his attitude, the fiery badger still held a grudge against his trainer for the squeaky hammer assault.

Seeing the raised eyebrow that Red was giving him, Ethan got back up and decided to quickly tell the truth before he was butchered.

"Okay, okay! My mom's not sick and she only needs my money so she can go on her bizarre shopping sprees! And as much as I hate to say it, Kris isn't my girlfriend!" Ethan suddenly put on a sheepish look as he said this. "Actually, if she heard what I just said, she'd probably beat me up and say that the most traumatic thing about her past was meeting me. Seriously, that girl really knows how to shoot down a guy's hopes in the harshest ways possible."

A few seconds passed in awkward silence before Ethan finally remembered the situation he was in. As soon as he did, he got back on his knees and began begging for his life again. After a few more seconds of this pathetic display, Red finally decided to speak up.

"Alright! I won't kill you so just shut up! Sheesh, I can't believe I'm saying this but you're even more obnoxious than Blue!"

As expected, Ethan did not shut his mouth and began to profusely thank Red for sparing him. Just when Red was thinking about unleashing Pikachu on the kid, Ethan suddenly asked a question.

"By the way… what were you carving up before I woke up? Umm… I mean, I won't tell anyone about your murder habits or anything but you didn't… umm… dissect one of my Pokémon or anything, right?"

Realizing that he was still holding a knife and that this was probably the reason for Ethan's overly fearful reaction, Red gave a sheepish look of his own.

"Oh… I was actually preparing dinner before all of this."

"Then what was all that about cutting off the head and removing the organs?"

Red put on his usual annoyed look before answering.

"Haven't you ever gutted and cleaned a fish before? Sheesh, aren't you Johto folks supposed to be a bunch of country hicks who live off of the land and such?"

"I just buy all my food from the supermarket so I wouldn't know," Ethan casually replied, seeming to completely miss the insult that Red threw at him.

After another bout of silence, Ethan decided to start up a conversation.

"So… can you tell me exactly what's going on? I'm still confused about all this and-"

"Save it for after dinner," Red interrupted as he turned around. "I don't think I can continue dealing with you on an empty stomach."

"Now that you mention it, I could go for some food as well." Ethan put on his enthusiastic smile again as he quickly reverted back to his usual self. "By the way, I don't like fish that much so could you prepare me some Tauros steak while you're at it? Those things are so much better than the Miltank steaks they have back at home."

Ethan then continued to babble on about how he preferred his steaks cooked medium-well with various herbs that Red had never even heard about. Deciding that responding to this would be an utter waste of time and energy, Red silently walked back to the kitchen wondering for the umpteenth time why he had ever allowed this idiot live…

 **xxx  
** _Several hours prior…_

"Okay, how about this? We'll dump the body in the underground lake and never speak of this again."

Red, Typhlosion, Tyranitar, and Charizard were gathered around the unmoving form of Ethan as they tried to figure out what to do following the crazy events moments before. Wanting to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible, Red had been the first one to voice an idea to the others.

While Charizard and Tyranitar seemed very much for this idea, Typhlosion simply shook his head before flipping over Ethan with a kick and pointing out that his trainer was still breathing.

"Umm… I'm sure that's just the air escaping from his dead body," Red said half-heartedly. When Typhlosion crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at him, Red quickly tried to take a different approach. "Oh, come on! You can't seriously be trying to defend this little pest after everything he's done to you! I mean, he forced you to carry a backpack three times your size up an entire mountain for crying out loud!"

For a few seconds, Typhlosion was tempted to personally dump Ethan in the lake. However, common sense eventually won over this thought and Typhlosion shook his head once again. When Red gave him a questioning look, Typhlosion gave a sigh and tried to explain himself using a variety of hand signals and body motions. Unfortunately, Red was not the greatest charade player around and could not understand what was being conveyed.

"Er… you like fish tacos?"

All three Pokémon gave a facepalm at Red's answer. After a brief exchange between the three of them, Charizard walked over and grabbed a small rock before drawing something on the ground with it. Red watched as his Pokémon drew out what looked like a very crude map of Mt. Silver and the surrounding area. After finishing his little doodle, Charizard pointed towards the square that Red was able to discern as the gateway connecting Mt. Silver to the Indigo Plateau and Viridian City. As Red gave a nod to show that he understood what he was looking at, Charizard began drawing a small group of stick figures inside the building.

It took a few seconds for Red to figure out that the stick figures were meant to be the guards. Seeing this, Red finally realized why Typhlosion was against Red's plan.

"Oh, right… the guards saw Ethan coming in through here. And if they don't see Ethan leaving they're sure to start an investigation to figure out what happened to him." All three Pokémon gave a grim-faced nod at this.

Red remained silent for a while before speaking up again in a hopeful voice.

"Still… it's not like the guards pay that much attention to people that are exiting. I'm sure that they'll just assume Ethan flew off on his Noctowl or something after a while."

The look on Typhlosion's face made it clear that this was very unlikely.

"…don't tell me. He did something to get the guards' attentions before entering this place, didn't he?"

Typhlosion gave a grimace as he remembered the thirty minute speech and impromptu performance that Ethan had presented when the guards had asked for identification. From all the phone calls that the guards were making as they finally let Ethan in, it was clear that every border patrol member was on the lookout for the suspicious trainer. If none of them reported seeing Ethan leave after a few days, it was very likely that they would storm the entire area to apprehend him.

Typhlosion's expression and silence made it clear to everyone present that simply tossing Ethan in a lake was no longer an option. After a long bout of silence, Red finally spoke up again.

"Alright, the way I see it, we need to handle the guards before figuring out how to deal with Ethan." Charizard and Tyranitar gave a nod to this while Typhlosion simply remained silent. After quickly forming a plan in his head, Red continued on. "I can probably pay off the higher-ups so that all of the guards assigned to Mt. Silver are loyal to me and will look the other way when I tell them to. Only problem is that this will probably take a few days to pull off and we need to somehow keep Ethan from telling the entire world about me during this time."

It was here that the group realized what the main issue was. To make this plan work, they needed Ethan to leave Mt. Silver for a bit so that the current guards would not start a news-worthy man-hunt for him. However, there was no doubt that Ethan would blab about Red's existence the moment he headed out which would make the rest of the plan completely pointless. In order for their cover-up to succeed, they needed to somehow keep Ethan from telling everyone about Red while the guards were being switched. After that, it would be an easy matter to deal with the loud-mouthed kid in whatever manner they deemed fit.

"So… any ideas on how to keep the brat silent?"

After a long while, Charizard hesitantly raised his hand with a very uneasy look. After getting a nod from Red, Charizard began drawing something on his map again and then pointed at it. Leaning in, the other three saw a simple doodle of a house drawn underneath the large triangle representing the mountain. Obviously, Typhlosion was completely confused about this but Red immediately understood that Charizard was referencing his secret hideout and gave another nod.

With a grim face, Charizard took a deep breath and began his own charade performance. Red was lost for a while but by the third repetition he began to get a faint idea about what Charizard was proposing.

"No!" Red shouted out as he realized what his Pokémon was hinting at. "No, no, no, no, and no! Never! Absolutely not! Not in a billion years! Not in a trillion years! Actually, just never until the end of time itself! And even after that, I'd say no!"

Charizard gave Red a stern look as he crossed his arms. While he had been expecting fierce resistance to the plan, he was still a bit surprised that Red would act so childishly considering the situation they were in. After waiting a bit for Red's tantrum to die down, Charizard began drawing something else on the floor.

This picture took a bit longer to draw but when Red eventually saw the finished product his adamant refusal to Charizard's idea died down quite a bit.

Drawn on the floor was a stick figure wearing a hat that was trapped inside a cage. Surrounding him was an army of demonic stick figures with horns that were all holding onto various weapons. Though crude, this drawing made it strikingly clear what Charizard was trying to say:

 _Follow my plan or enjoy spending some quality time with your fans._

Not knowing what to do, Red looked at Tyranitar to see what he thought about all this. Having figured out the full extent of Charizard's plan long before Red, the green giant had been able to give the idea some more thought. And as much as he disliked the idea, he could not think of a better way to accomplish their goal. As such, he gave a sigh and simply shrugged in answer to Red's gaze. With a look of utter defeat, Red mumbled out a response.

"Ugh… Fine… I guess we'll go with your idea..."

Charizard simply gave a satisfied nod to this as he immediately turned to his other two associates and grunted out a few orders.

While Typhlosion was still confused by all of this, he decided that whatever they had planned had to be better than just simply dumping Ethan in a lake. As such, he did as he was told and went over to the large backpack that was sitting in the far corner of the mountaintop and put it on. Meanwhile, Tyranitar grabbed Ethan and tossed him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. With their cargo secured, both Pokémon walked over to Red and waited for him to lead the way.

With a sigh of epic proportions, Red voiced out the question that he had been repeating to himself ever since the day he had become Champion.

"I'm going to regret this decision for the rest of my life, aren't I?"

 **xxx**

Despite the world's obvious hatred for him, Red had somehow managed to make his way back to the hideout without being eaten by a giant turkey or something of the sort.

With the elevator at the summit malfunctioning, Red and the gang had to make their way down the mountain to one of the lower entry points. Unfortunately, without the usage of Flash, the trip had taken an arduously long time as they had to rely on Charizard's tail flame to barely see their way through the pitch-black cave. After a good hour or so though, they finally reached their destination.

After entering the living quarters of the hideout, Tyranitar had dumped Ethan inside the storage closet while Red and Charizard tried to explain everything to an extremely surprised Typhlosion. Another hour later, Typhlosion was fully informed and had tried helping Red prepare dinner when Ethan had woken up. All that needed to be done now was to explain everything to Ethan and hopefully convince him to keep quiet like they had planned.

"So let me get this straight," Ethan said as Red finished talking. "This place is some kind of special resort that you built where only the most talented and awesome Champions are allowed to enter?"

Red resisted the urge to roll his eyes and simply nodded.

Red, Ethan, Typhlosion, Tyranitar, and Charizard were all gathered at the enormous dining hall that looked like it had been pulled straight from some elaborate castle. Despite the fancy setting, the meal had been relatively simple and consisted only of some fried fish and rice (Of course, Ethan had whined about not getting his steak but was quickly silenced when Typhlosion bopped him on the head with the squeaky hammer). After finishing their meal in silence, the group had gone straight to business.

"So the reason you went missing was-"

"Because I was busy setting up this place. Yes," Red dismissed with an irritated wave of his hand. "I told you this three times already."

"Sorry. I'm just having a hard time taking all of this in." Ethan took a minute to look around the impressive interior before speaking up again. "I mean, who would have thought you were living in a mansion built underneath a mountain?"

"It's more than just a mansion," Red corrected. "This place has multiple sectors that are all connected to each other. Asides from the living quarters that we're in right now, there's also the underground lake, a library, an arcade, a miniature theme park, a spa lounge, and multiple battle arenas. There are even a few areas that I haven't been to but they're probably something along the lines of what I've already mentioned."

Ethan could only give an impressed whistle upon hearing all this as he stared at Red in awe. After a few more seconds of silent worshiping, Ethan spoke up in a clearly excited voice.

"And I'm actually allowed to stay in this place?"

Red mentally braced himself at this question. This was the point of no return where the fate of the hideout's secrecy rested.

For all the fuss about it, the plan had been remarkably simple. With the knowledge that people were more likely to keep a secret if they had something at stake as well, Charizard had come up with the idea to let Ethan in on a modified version of the truth. While it was necessary for Ethan to leave Mt. Silver for a while to not send the current guards into a frenzy, this little trickery would ensure that he would keep his mouth shut during his time outside. Afterwards, once Red had finished switching out the guards, they would call Ethan over again and either let him stay with them temporarily if he behaved himself or dispose of him if he got too annoying.

After taking a deep breath, Red finally spoke up.

"You can stay…"

"Woohoo! Awesome!"

"However!" Red loudly cut in before Ethan's cheering could get out of hand. "You need to keep the existence of this place a secret from everyone else! Am I making myself completely clear here?"

"Oh, I get you," Ethan replied with a smile. "Only top-tier Champions are allowed in here right? Actually, that's why you agreed to battle with me earlier isn't it? To make sure I was worthy enough to be let in here?"

"Err… yeah… sure."

"Speaking of which, whatever happened at the end of that battle? I just remember figuring out who you were before I suddenly fainted and ended up here."

"Umm… no clue," Red said dismissively. "Anyways, there are more important matters to deal with at the moment. For starters, I'll need you to leave for a few days so that I can… umm… set up your room… and stuff."

"Awww," Ethan said in a disappointed voice as he seemed to completely forget about his previous question. "Can't I just camp out in the living room while you set everything up?"

"No!" Red practically shouted out. After a brief bout of awkward silence, he quickly tried to explain himself. "Err… what I meant is that there will probably be a lot of construction work and we'll need to empty this place for a bit. I'll contact you once everything's ready so just… hang out somewhere away from Mt. Silver until then. We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention to this place after all."

After spending a few seconds taking all of this in, Ethan put on a larger smile than before and answered with a fervent nod.

"Got it. I'll just chill at my own place for a few days then. Man, I can't wait to lounge around inside a secret resort though! Who knew being a Champion would be this amazing?"

Red had to resist the urge to offer a snarky reply to this. Instead, he opted to remind Ethan once again just how important keeping his mouth shut was.

"Remember, don't tell anyone about me or this place unless you want your membership revoked."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Ethan said with his silly grin still on his face. "I promise not to tell anyone. After all, I don't want people like Youngster Joey finding out about this place either. The last thing I want is for him to chase me down and force me to listen to another one of his speeches about how his Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattatas."

While Red had no idea what Ethan was talking about, he was glad he managed to get his point across. Off to the side, the trio of Charizard, Tyranitar, and Typhlosion let out a collective sigh of relief at the results. While the three had kept silent to let Red handle the situation, they had been prepared to resort to drastic measures if Ethan had refused to cooperate. Typhlosion in particular was more than ready to beat his trainer senseless with the squeaky hammer if things had taken a turn for the worse (of course, he was planning to do this later anyways in retaliation for the attack earlier but it would have been nice to have a handy excuse to do so).

With their plan successfully initiated, the tense atmosphere in the room evaporated and the group finally relaxed. While they still did not have a long-term solution on how to deal with Ethan, the immediate crisis had been solved. All they needed to do now was to wait and hope that their ruse would play out to the end.

Just when Red was beginning to think that perhaps things would finally work out the way he wanted, Ethan spoke up.

"Hey, just wondering. Is there actually a sacred sword on this mountain? Because I ran into a magical bush on the way here who told me that there was one somewhere on the summit."

It was then that Red realized that perhaps his troubles were only just beginning.

 **xxx  
** _Two weeks later…_

As strange as it was, nothing terrible had occurred during the second phase of the plan. Red had successfully bribed the head of security to assign a bunch of guards who were secretly ordered to follow the Champion's every order. As it stood, Red could have turned the entire area into a nuclear testing facility and the new guards would have acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. With preparations set to easily "remove" Ethan if necessary, Red had called the annoying trainer back to the mountain.

To his credit, Ethan seemed to have actually managed to keep quiet about Red's secret. While there was no solid evidence of this, the lack of crazy fan mobs and paparazzi members storming the mountain spoke in favor of the kid. Also, the fact that Typhlosion was keeping tabs on him was a point of reassurance. After receiving the squeaky hammer from Red as a little parting gift, the fiery badger had agreed to keep an eye on his trainer whenever he could.

Despite all this good news, however, not everything had gone exactly as Red had hoped. After exchanging their phone numbers, Ethan had been constantly pestering Red every thirty minutes to see if he could come back yet. It even got to the point that Red could not sleep properly as Ethan would, for some god-forsaken reason, call him at three in the morning for a status update. Sadly, silencing the phone was not an option as Red was afraid of missing an important call from the head of security or his base's repairman who was busy fixing the summit elevator. In the end, Red was forced to take a crash course in programming to create an automated system that would redirect all of Ethan's call to his computer which would then simply answer any questions with various equivalents of "no". Surprisingly, this actually seemed to do the trick as Ethan did not seem to have noticed anything wrong when Red finally did call him personally to invite him back over.

With nothing left to do but wait, Red decided to relax a bit and was slouched on the sofa as he watched the card game anime from before on his theater-sized TV. Despite its weird setup and horrible censorship, the show was actually starting to grow on Red quite a bit. In fact, it was tied with the other strange show about digital monsters as Red's current favorite program.

Red was so immersed in the show's final clash between the spikey-haired protagonist's magician and the rival's dragon that he nearly didn't hear the beeping from his base's proximity alarm. However, the insistent noise eventually got his attention and he reluctantly went over to his computer to check what the problem was. As he looked at the readout though, his look of irritation was quickly replaced with one of confusion. According to the computer there was an unregistered person nearing one of the entrances to his base. At first, Red thought the computer was simply detecting Ethan but soon realized that this could not be the case as he had already inputted Ethan's profile into the registry. With a growing sense of dread, Red quickly turned on one of his surveillance cameras located near the intruder's location to get a visual on what was going on. As the camera screen popped up, Red was left more confused than ever.

Displayed before him was the unmistakable backside of Tyranitar who was currently facing down Ethan and the large backpack that was obviously Typhlosion. Based on what his scanner had told him, Red guessed that there was another person next to Ethan but Tyranitar's bulk unfortunately hid the mystery intruder's identity. As it stood, Tyranitar seemed to be in an extremely annoyed mood as he was holding onto his bat in a clearly threatening manner. Ethan was currently saying something to Tyranitar as if trying to reason with him. After the kid finished talking, Tyranitar was seen shaking his head as if firmly rejecting whatever Ethan had proposed. Ethan then began to shout something which Red guessed were a bunch of noisy complaints. Whatever it was, Tyranitar seemed to be fed up with dealing with the brat and his hidden friend and charged forward with his bat. However that was when things took an unexpected turn.

Before he had taken more than two steps forward, Tyranitar was suddenly blasted backwards as if he had taken a direct hit from an anti-tank missile. Red had just enough time to see a flash of blue before the flying form of Tyranitar crashed into the tree that the camera was hidden in and the screen fizzled out of life. This was apparently not the end of the carnage though as whatever had attacked Tyranitar seemed to be continuing its assault as Red felt a series of impacts shaking his base. Considering that his underground hideout was nearly half a mile beneath the surface, Red could only dare to imagine the sheer destructive force that was being unleashed above.

After a few minutes, the shaking finally stopped and an uneasy silence seemed to fall over the entire area. Red was understandably shocked and confused beyond words at this point and was left standing with his mouth open as he continued to stare blankly at the dead screen. Following what felt like an eternity, Red's brain finally managed to restart itself as he began to slowly try and get a grip on things.

From what he just saw, he was able to determine that Ethan had most likely brought along someone (or more likely _something_ ) with him that Tyranitar did not approve of. This newcomer was obviously the cause of the proximity alarm going off as Ethan and his Pokémon were already cleared to enter Mt. Silver. From the unbelievable power that Red just witnessed, he guessed that the most likely scenario was that Ethan had brought over some kind of bizarre new Pokémon that he had just recently caught. However, the sheer ferocity and strength that was just shown made it hard for Red to guess exactly what sort of insane beast that Ethan had recruited.

Red's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a loud series of knocking were heard at his door. After barely suppressing a surprised yelp, Red slowly walked over to the door connecting the elevator station to his living room. Taking a deep breath, Red spoke up in a hesitant voice.

"W… who's there?"

"Hey, it's me! Your best buddy Ethan!"

His fear momentarily forgotten thanks to the surge of irritation that Ethan's voice brought, Red opened the door and found the young trainer looking as if he had recently walked through a tornado. Ethan did not seem to notice his disheveled appearance though as he held up his hand for a high-five while wearing his trademark grin. Red promptly ignored the gesture as he crossed his arms and gave his junior a scathing glare.

"What exactly did you bring over here?"

Ethan was obviously caught off-guard by this question as he lowered his hand with a troubled look.

"Oh, you saw all that?" When Red simply answered by increasing the intensity of his glare, Ethan continued on with a sheepish laugh. "Heh… heh… Umm… look, I know what you said about keeping this place a secret but I just couldn't help it! She wouldn't believe me and I needed some way to prove that I met you! Plus, she has all the qualifications that I do so-"

"Wait," Red interrupted as he pieced together what Ethan was trying to say. "Are you telling me that you actually brought over a _person_ here?"

"Yeah," Ethan replied in a surprisingly casual manner. "I mean, you told me that I could."

"What are you talking about? When did I ever say anything like that?"

"You don't remember? I called you yesterday and asked, and I quote, 'Can I not bring over a friend?' You answered 'no' to that so by the rules of a double negative you clearly gave me permission."

Red was frozen in place as a flurry of emotions raged inside him. On one hand, he could not help but feel that he had severely underestimated Ethan's intelligence. From what he just heard, Ethan had somehow figured out that Red had set up an automated answering system and had clearly used that to his advantage. This feat was so unexpected that Red could not help but feel impressed by Ethan's hidden wit. On the other hand, the fact remained that Ethan had screwed up Red's plan for a quiet life once again. Feeling more enraged than the time Blue had stolen his last chocolate chip cookie, Red reached for Pikachu's Pokéball to obliterate the nuisance standing in front of him. However, his murderous intentions were stopped when an important piece of detail suddenly popped into his mind.

"Wait a second… you said that you brought over a person here, right?"

"Umm… yeah?" Ethan answered in a clearly confused voice. "We've kinda already established that."

"And you didn't have any of your Pokémon out when Tyranitar tried to attack you?"

Ethan tilted his head in confusion before answering.

"Not unless you count Typhlosion. Of course, he was holding onto my backpack at the time so he wasn't able to do anything."

Red's rage was quickly replaced with an overwhelming sense of dread and awe. Barely able to keep the shock out of his voice, Red muttered the first thing that came to his mind.

"But… that's impossible! There's no way a human could-"

"Hey! How much longer are you going to make me wait for?" an unknown female voice suddenly yelled out from behind the two trainers. "I swear, if this turns out to be another one of your lame attempt to impress me, I'm going to shove this Godzilla rip-off straight up your-"

The threat was cut short as the speaker walked into sight range of Red and Ethan. As expected, the first thing that Red immediately noted before anything else was the girl's yellow seamed-cap. Without even putting any conscious effort into it, Red was able to instantaneously analyze the hat's material, practicality, and design. It was only after finally judging the hat as "above-average" in his mental hat-ranking system that Red managed to focus on the girl herself.

Wearing a white jacket, red shirt, and a pair of yellow bike shorts, she was a slim yet athletic-looking girl who seemed to be somewhere between Red and Ethan's age. Though she looked relatively normal, her teal-blue hair definitely caught Red's eye. While there were many different hair colors in the Pokémon universe, teal-blue was still a rather… exotic shade to have. Deciding to overlook this oddity for the time being, Red instead focused on the girl's face. She had a relatively cute feature but this was currently shadowed by the irritated expression that most people tended to wear when Ethan was around. Her expression quickly changed to one of surprise though when she laid her eyes on Red. However, this was nothing compared to the open-mouthed look of pure shock that the Kanto Champion put on as he noticed the final crucial detail about this newcomer.

Without a hint of exertion, the girl was dragging along the unconscious form of Tyranitar behind her. With only a single hand, the girl carried the five hundred pound beast by the leg as if he weighed nothing more than a small suitcase. As Red's heart began to beat like a jackhammer, the girl slowly walked towards him with her fainted victim in tow before stopping directly in front of him. After letting go of Tyranitar's leg (which actually cracked parts of the tiled floor as it landed), the girl stared up at Red's face as if she could not believe what she was seeing. As the seconds continued to tick by with Red frozen in place, the girl finally spoke up in a strangely quiet voice.

"You… are you actually-"

"Yep, that's Red!" Ethan cheerfully cut in, instantly destroying the heavy atmosphere in the process. "Told you I found him! Now, are you going to finally admit that I'm the coolest trainer ever and agree to go out with me?"

The girl immediately turned to glare at Ethan with enough intensity to make even the normally oblivious Champion shrink away in fear. Deciding that saying anything else to her would be potentially fatal, Ethan instead turned his attention to Red.

"Ahem. I guess I should introduce her to you. This is Kris, another one of Johto's recent Champions. She's from my hometown and we often crossed paths during our journey. I should warn you that she can be a bit… violent at times but she's a really nice person once you get to know her… and survive her beatings… Anyways, I'm sure things will be a lot more interesting with her around. After all, the more the merrier, huh?"

As Ethan began to let out a jolly laugh, Red was suddenly reminded of something he had forgotten to do and turned to Kris with a serious expression.

"Ahem. I know this is a bit sudden but… You wouldn't mind if I killed this idiot right now, would you?"

There was a faint hint of surprise on Kris's face when Red addressed her but it was quickly replaced by a small smile as she gave a casual shrug.

"Be my guest."

"Ha ha! Look at us, making silly jokes together already!" Ethan said in his usual carefree tone. "It's like we're all one big happy… what are you doing with that Pokéball? And why is it covered in sparks?"

Due to the following cover-up by Mt. Silver's guards, the details about what happened afterwards are left unclear. However, the one thing that could be accurately confirmed was that for three hours straight Mt. Silver was filled with the sounds of an adolescent boy's screams along with the sadistic laughter of a certain electric rodent.


	7. Intermission 1: Blue's Clues

**Okay, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that the time-traveling duck from before has decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Earth after our last encounter. Because of this, my updating schedule will be completely out of whack while I try to fend off this attack. The good news is that I've managed to recruit a group of land sharks to help me in my fight so at least we won't be enslaved by a group of evil duck overlords.**

 **In all seriousness though, I really am sorry for the snail-paced updates. I'm trying my best to speed things up but it seems like something just keeps popping up every time I promise to do so. My schedule will probably return to normal by next month so please bear with my irregular updates until then.**

 **Sadly, I didn't have time to finish the next chapter of the main story so I decided to post this side-story instead. I've had a few of these intermissions planned out so I figured this was a good time to slip one in and also explain my situation. We'll return to the main story with the next update so no need to worry about having to deal with an entire season of filler either. Hopefully this chapter will manage to at least get a small laugh out of you while I try to take down the duck army of doom. Now then, onwards to victory!**

* * *

 **Intermission 1: Blue's Clues**

It was just after sunset as Lance continued shuffling through the stack of papers piled across his desk. It had been a rather quiet day at the Indigo Plateau so the resident Champion had decided to finally get started on the mountain of forms that the Association had sent over for approval. As expected, the task was a mind-numbingly dull ordeal as most of the forms dealt with mundane subject matters such as the tax rate on Repels and the legal definition of "organic Tauros meat." After vetoing the third paper asking for the deportation of all trainers with six Magikarps in their party, Lance could not help but hope for something, anything, to happen so that he could take his mind off the paperwork for a few minutes. Much to his surprise, his wish seemed to come true as the door to his office suddenly opened. However, his joy was quickly turned into massive disappointment as a familiar yet unwelcome person entered the room.

"Yo, wassup Lance?" Blue said with a wave as he strutted into the room. "Still sporting that ridiculous cape of yours I see. Honestly, when are you going to realize that you look like a rejected comic book hero in that getup?"

Lance did not even bother to justify this with a response as he returned his focus onto his paperwork. Blue did not seem to mind the fact that he was being ignored as he began inspecting Lance's office.

"Ho man. You actually have a copy of _The Arcanine, the Jynx, and the Wardrobe_? I gotta admit, I never took you for a fantasy buff."

"What are you doing here?" Lance finally asked with an exasperated sigh. "Don't you have a gym that you're supposed to be running?"

Blue just gave a casual shrug as he sat down on the chair opposite of Lance's desk. "I was having a rather slow day so I decided to close shop early and get some fresh air for once."

"Then why on earth did you come all the way over here then?" Lance asked as he looked up from his papers. "Victory Road is hardly a casual hiking course and I highly doubt you came here just to say hello."

"Yeah… about that," Blue began in an overly-innocent tone. Lance immediately knew what Blue was planning to say thanks to past experiences but he was too tired at the moment to bother cutting him off. With a resigned sigh, Lance waved his hand for Blue to continue. "I was wondering if you've changed your mind since last time and would, oh I don't know… hand over the position of Champion to me?"

"You already are a Champion," Lance said in a tired voice. "You're registered into the Hall of Fame and everything."

"You know what I mean," Blue said as he rolled his eyes. "I want to be the resident Champion for the Kanto region again. I know you don't like the job anyways so why can't you just hand over the position to me?"

"I'm just filling in for the actual Champion," Lance intoned as he vetoed yet another Magikarp trainer form. "Besides, I don't have the authority to hand over this job. If you really want to get your old position back, go and defeat Red. That should get the Pokémon Association to reconsider your eligibility."

Blue gave a derisive snort at the mention of his old rival. "Right. Let me just go and find a guy that's been missing for over three years despite all the people looking for him and somehow get him to agree to battle with me. That sounds completely reasonable."

"Your sarcasm is duly noted," Lance replied. "In all seriousness though, why exactly do you even want this job? Asides from the slightly higher pay, it's practically the same thing as being a Gym Leader."

"Are you kidding? It's literally the one job in the world that tells everyone that you're superior to them in every way! I mean, what could be better than being worshipped and praised by everyone around you?"

"Not having to deal with all this paperwork would be nice," Lance muttered. Blue did not seem to hear this as he continued to prattle on for nearly ten whole minutes. After Blue's speech finally came to an end, the room returned to its original peaceful state as the only sound that could be heard was Lance's pen as he continued to silently work through his forms. Growing bored, Blue reached over and grabbed one of the nearby papers.

"Tax rates on Pokéballs imported from Johto," Blue read aloud as he glossed over the sheet. "That sounds… fun."

"You have no idea," Lance said with a sigh. "Nearly half of these forms have to deal with trade relations between Kanto and Johto. Honestly, I don't know why the Association still hasn't set up a separate department for matters dealing with Johto yet."

"Why not just hand these over to the Johto Champion?" Blue asked with a shrug. "That seems like an easy way to skip out on all this."

"I would if there actually were a resident Johto Champion to hand these over to." Seeing the confused look on Blue's face, Lance elaborated. "Johto doesn't have their own Elite Four so they share it with ours. In fact, there have only been two recent trainers from Johto who even qualified for the title of Champion."

Hearing this, Blue's eyes began to shine as he quickly went over the implications this statement held. However, Lance immediately noticed Blue's reaction and swiftly continued.

"That doesn't mean you can be the reigning Champion for the Johto region," Lance said causing Blue to visibly slump down in disappointment. "You have to be a resident of the region if you're going to hold the official office position of Champion there. Besides, if the Association finally does set up a separate league for Johto, the two trainers I mentioned before are the most likely candidates for being the resident Champions."

Blue stayed silent for a moment after having his hopes crushed but quickly recovered as he spoke up once again.

"By the way… are the two Champions you mentioned a loud-mouthed boy wearing a hat and a blue-haired girl?"

Lance was mildly surprised by this question as he looked up to answer. "Yes, actually. Their names were Ethan and Kris if I recall correctly. Have you met them before?"

Blue's face immediately darkened as if he had suddenly remembered a rather unpleasant memory. "Met them? Those two nutjobs practically obliterated my gym!"

"Well, that's not too uncommon," Lance brushed off. "I mean, there's a reason why the Association adds a monthly repair bonus to every Gym Leader's salary. It's kind of expected for your gym to face some collateral damage during every battle."

Blue shook his head as if Lance was completely missing the point. After getting a half-exasperated, half-curious look from the dragon master, Blue explained.

"I don't know what their deal was but those two brats nearly killed me during each of their battles. It almost felt like they had some kind of… obligation to beat me even if that meant demolishing everything around them. And let me tell you, they very nearly did. In fact, the girl seemed fully prepared to blow up half the city if I hadn't yielded at the last second. Seriously, I've never faced anyone so crazily intent on crushing me since that idiot Red three years ago."

Lance seemed genuinely interested in what Blue was saying for once as he listened to all this in silence. Having fought the two Johto Champions himself with no real consequence, Lance was intrigued by the two's reportedly drastic change in behavior towards Blue.

"Hmm… Did you happen to somehow offend them before the battle started?" Lance asked. It was a rather basic question but Lance decided to ask anyways considering Blue's tendency to be rude to just about everyone he met.

"Not unless you count my introduction as some kind of new-age insult," Blue replied with a snort.

"And what exactly did you say in your introduction?"

"Just your typical greeting and such." When Lance raised an eyebrow at this, Blue hesitantly continued. "…and I might have added in something about how I was the greatest trainer ever and that I should have been Champion since Red was just a third-rate wannabe who only won against me through sheer luck."

Lance was sure that Blue was leaving out a few important details but decided it was not worth the trouble to interrogate him any further. Instead, Lance decided to shift the discussion onto the Johto Champions themselves.

"Was there anything particularly strange about the two trainers?" Lance asked. "If they're using some kind of unknown power to continue causing the amount of destruction you claimed, then I'm going to have to report this to the Association for further investigation."

Blue was just about to blurt out that the two Champions were clearly unhinged psychopaths but quickly stopped himself. As much as he wanted to get back at the pair for humiliating him, he was all too aware that the Association would drag him into their investigation as a witness if Lance reported all this. And the last thing he wanted was to be involved with anything concerning the two monsters again. With all this in mind, Blue decided to simply gloss over the threat that Ethan and Kris clearly posed to the rest of the world.

"Meh. I highly doubt that you need to bring in the Association for this," Blue passed off with a nonchalant shrug. "The two might have gone a bit overboard against me but I highly doubt they pose a threat to society. I mean not unless being a massive annoyance counts as one. Seriously, that boy just wouldn't stop talking about being the ultimate trainer during the entire battle. I nearly went crazy trying to tune him out during the fight."

Much to Blue's relief, Lance actually seemed to buy all this as he simply responded with a nod. However, it seemed he was not fully satisfied with Blue's answer yet as he asked one final question. "What about the girl, Kris? Was there anything off about her?"

Blue hesitated for a second as he went over the terrifying encounter he had with Kris. As much as he wanted to pretend that she had just been a normal trainer, there was no way anyone could forget the bone-chilling aura that had emanated from her at all times. To Blue, it had felt as if Kris had been the physical manifestation of all the world's greatest nightmares. Just the memory of their encounter was enough to send a shiver down Blue's spine. However, he managed to hide his fear from Lance as he calmly answered back.

"She was… a quiet one. She didn't really talk much during our meeting so it was kinda hard to learn anything about her. I mean, the most telling thing about her was the determined look in her eyes that bordered on downright scary. I'm guessing her goal was something along the lines of becoming the strongest trainer ever seeing as how she seemed extremely focused during the entire battle."

Lance could not figure out whether to wince or smile at this as he could relate to dealing with someone like this. His cousin Clair was also well-known for chasing after her dream of becoming the ultimate trainer with excessive determination and force. Having been involved in one too many incidents where Clair had gone overboard during her battles, Lance felt that he could understand why Blue was complaining about the carnage he had faced. Of course, Lance had no way of knowing that Blue was hiding the complete truth from him and that the destruction Kris brought upon Viridian City was far beyond anything Clair could have done.

Deciding that there was no need for any drastic actions, Lance finally decided to put an end to their unscheduled meeting.

"Well, it's getting late and I still need to get through these papers. I'll keep an eye out for Kris and Ethan but it doesn't seem like I need to file a case against them. Besides, the last thing I want is to start an international crisis by starting an unwarranted investigation on Johto's Champions."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that now would we?" Blue said with a nervous laugh. Thankfully Lance did not seem to notice that as he was more focused on getting his "guest" out of his office.

"Now then, why don't you head back to your gym so that I can get back to work?"

"Alright, alright. I know when I'm not wanted," Blue said overdramatically as he got up from his chair. "Besides, I still need to do a bit of shopping before I head back. Apparently Daisy needs some Arbok venom and Chansey liver from the market here."

"Umm… what exactly is she planning to do with those two things?" Lance asked rather worriedly.

"She's probably getting ready for the annual hot pot celebration," Blue said with a slight shudder. "Word of advice, stay far away from Pallet Town for the next few months. There might be a slight chance that everyone there will transform into mutated zombies during that time."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

"Alright then, I'm off," Blue said as he finally reached the door. "Oh, and don't forget to convince the Pokémon Association to give me your position. I'm sure everyone will benefit from that. Smell ya later!"

After waiting a few seconds following Blue's departure, Lance let out a large sigh.

"Somehow, I don't think handing you my job will benefit anyone," Lance muttered to himself as he got up from his desk. Deciding to give his tired mind a brief rest, Lance walked over to the window and stared up into the darkened sky.

 _Maybe Red had the right idea to run away from all this,_ Lance thought as he stared longingly at the wide-open space in front of him. _In fact,_ _I wish I could be in his position right now. Just freely exploring the world with no paperwork or annoying former Champions bugging you. Yeah, that would be nice._

Lance's thoughts were cut short as he suddenly spotted something in the night sky. Although he could barely make it out from this distance, Lance immediately recognized the light signal featuring the silhouette of a large Zubat. With a sigh, Lance turned away from the window.

 _I guess my vacation will have to wait_ , Lance thought as he walked over and pulled back the copy of _The Arcanine, the Jynx, and the Wardrobe_. This immediately caused a section of his bookshelf to slide open and reveal a hidden elevator. As he walked towards the lift, Lance pulled out a blue and purple mask from somewhere underneath his cape and put it on.

"After all," Lance said aloud as he completed his transformation and descended into his hidden lair. "This region needs me."


End file.
